TITANS OF THE 20th AND 21st CENTURIES

Here's the third.
Although I've always been in love with Hockney, I have to confess that he's not quite in the same etherial league as Bacon and Freud.
However, his influence is everywhere. Just look at the ads in any up-market magazine.

ANOTHER ARTIST AS ICON

As all you assiduous followers of these scribblings will know, Francis Bacon popped out of the blue.
A short while later Freud followed.
This has started a trend, and he's the second in my titans of the 20th and 21st centuries (artists, that is).
Watch this space for the next one.

BACON AS ICON

Don't know how it happened, but it did.
I was looking as some books on Francis Bacon, and, at about the same time, some books on Russian icons.
And this is what popped out of my head.
One never knows with painting.

VAN GOGH ON ITS WAY TO SA

Heather and Red live in Cape Town, but have decided to share their lives with Vincent.
This is a photo of Red, Heather and...well...Vincent, I suppose.

Needless to say the Van Gogh is only a copy - otherwise they'd be surrounded by armed security guards.

Bon menage a trois avec Vincent.

THE WHITE LION IN THE LAKE DISTRICT

Most pubs in England are truly wonderful, but, as everyone knows, every now and then there's an exception.
And we found one of these in the Lake District in May.
It's called the White Lion which you may just be able to see on the sign in the sketch I did.
Well, it was better than just "truly wonderful".
It was nothing less than EXCEPTIONALLY SENSATIONAL.

BLOOD, SWEAT AND HARD YAKKA IN THE PYRENEES

Last week we went off in the campervan to walk in the Pyrenees near Gavarnie.
“The most mysterious architecture by the most mysterious of architects, nature’s coliseum, Gavarnie” is how Victor Hugo described this UNESCO World Heiitage site.
He was right - but he forgot to mention that it's very high, very scary and very hard yakka to get up to the Breche de Roland, which is a breach through the top of the mountains into Spain.
Afterwards we just lay around for a day or two in the foothills - which are just as beautiful as the high mountains, and, to while away some time, I did a quick sketch of the campervan.

ENGLISH ENGLISH TEACHER AND ENGLISH HISTORY TEACHER FROM SWITZERLAND

Colette and Jamie from Switzerland had the problem of World Cup fixtures competing with all the local attractions when they stayed at La Petite Galerie in early July.
Anyway, with a bit of horse trading, they saw some soccer, some of the wonderful villages, some great restaurants, and they even managed to squeeze in some painting during their stay.
Here they are with their paintings of the nearby bastide village of Fources.