PORTRAIT OF PETER’S DOG

One day recently a friend told me me that one of his dogs had just died. (She’s just done the trip to Dignitas is how he put it). I’d painted her a few years ago. You can see her here: Tam.
He was so despondent that I told him I’d paint the surviving dog for him as soon a possible.
So I took a photograph and here it is.

For more information about animals painted from photographs, please click here:

https://www.artfinder.com/product/portrait-of-your-dog-or-cat-or-other-pet/

HEROS OF THE RESISTANCE

PORTRAIT OF A HERO

This is Jacques Chantre. He is 95 years old. 
He was awarded the Legion d’Honneur after the Second World War.
  I met him recently in the kitchen of a small house less than twenty minutes from my front door. He told me what happened to him in a maize field just over 70 years ago. He was waiting for an explosion. 
      Jacques was on a mission with French patriots to blow up a train. One boy looked after the bicycles while Jacques and another kid placed the explosives sur la voie ferrée Bordeaux - Toulouse.

      They heard a blast which meant success. The next day the local newspaper described the event as an "attaque terroriste".

  On their way to cross the Garonne to look for other maquisards who were hiding in the forest, they were searched by “deux gendarmes francais” who found the revolver Jacques was still carrying. He was 23 years old, and that’s when the nightmare began. It lasted until the end of the war. 

  They were manacled to the back of a police camion and taken to Eysses, the high security detention centre at Villeneuve sur Lot.

  After the fall of France in 1940, around 1.8 million French prisoners were sent to Germany. Jacques Chantre became one of them in October 1943, when, following a prisoner mutiny, he found himself on a train to Dachau. He was in a wagon designated “6 horses or 40 persons”.

  During his time in the death camp, he endured extreme privation and witnessed the most horrific, repulsive and despicable acts ever perpetrated by man.

  But one day in 1945 the prisoners noticed that the SS guards were no longer a presence. No one knew what was going on, and they stayed locked in their huts behind the wire. 

  A few days later, a Jeep arrived in the camp. The prisoners were astonished to see an officer with long blond hair get out with a camera. She was a journalist with an American publication. The Yanks had arrived to liberate Dachau.

  If ever you’re in Nerac on a Saturday morning, don’t forget to look out for Jacques. He walks the 2 kilometres each way from his home to the market pour faire les courses every Saturday morning.

      The most impressive thing about Jacques today is his spriteliness and good humour. So it was both disconcerting and humbling to sit in the kitchen with this wonderful old man who survived one of the bloodiest episodes in European history.

      The portrait I painted of Jacques is for the collection of the Association Nationale des Anciens Combattants et Ami(e)s de la Resistance. 
      I feel that this is the least I could do to show in what high esteem I hold Jacques.

YOUR FRENCH FLING IN GASCONY

The catalogue's just out.

Team photo at a safe sex product advertisement.

Late night cabaret in Poudenas.

Preparing the best meal of the week.

Too many cooks - or too much wine?

Picnic at Larressingle.

Learning about grapes and what to make with them.

Picnic at Lectoure

Learning how to taste Armagnac and Floc.

Team shot in Nerac.

Group art session in the open air. Ray believes he's the only teacher in the world who was never given an apple.

When in doubt go somewhere to taste wine.

The last word. 
And that's all folks - until next time.

A BUSY SUMMER OF PAINTING

2016 has been really busy. And it's been really hot, which is wonderful. Most days are over 30 degrees.
We've had lots of guests - plus our grandchildren which was great, but tiring.
The guests were:
The Selbys from Ireland (for their 3rd visit) who brought Veronica and Mark.
We painted 12th century clocktower at Fources.
Jose and Thijs from Amsterdam (for their 5th visit) were joined by three friends for part of their stay. I couldn't talk the men into painting, but the ladies painted the bridge and bastide buildings at Fources from opposite the chateau.

Here they all are:

The Selbys - including John from Australia - hard at work in Fources. 

And this is what they did. 

Artist and photographer 

Three lady painters at Fources.
The men were probably talking about cars, computers and football over a beer in Mézin.
(Lynne says this is a very sexist comment,
but I'm leaving it in.)

I told you everyone - yes EVERYONE - can learn to paint and draw, and to prove it, this is Jack, my grandson, painting in my studio. We've made sure we won't get into any trouble over paint stained clothing or washing bills.

NOT JUST A PRETTY FACE

Even on this simple/humble blog you can't hide from soccer or Wog ball to some in Australia - because it's so popular with European immigrants.(Note: One of my sons says this word is a serious insult and should never be used).
Anyway, in Europe now we're right in the middle of Europe 2016 soccer madness. All the old stars have been resuscitated on telly: including Pele, Maradona, and Best amongst others. And, of course, David Beckham, villain and saint of English football - once reviled, when he was red carded and sent off the pitch in a World Cup game against Argentina - and then colonised when, despite often playing under pressure, he led MU to an unprecedented triple crown: the Premier League championship, the FA Cup and the European Cup.

Beckham effigy hanged outside pub in 1998

Here's my version of his pretty face.

You can see more of my portraits here:

https://www.artfinder.com/ray-johnstone

EMERGING MELBOURNE ARTISTS

According to The Age arts and culture correspondent, Lynne Knowall, collectors can forget Blackman, Roberts, Streeton, Williams, Drysdale and even Brett Whitely.
Her advice is to focus on emerging artists Ingrid and John & Robyn and John who have been identified by the National Gallery of Victoria as their pick of the up and coming Melbourne artists of the future.
"An initial showing of their work blew our minds," said one of the NGV curators. "We were so overwhelmed by an initial showing of their work that a big splash is being planned for the Christmas season 2016 with a blockbuster exhibition of paintings they did en plein air in France in June.
A catalogue has already been printed.
Melbourne 21 June 2016

Here you can see them painting in Fources in France.

This bastide village is officially classified as 'One of the most beautiful villages in France'

Collectors are advised to get in while the going's good.

THE FINAL ASSAULT

Not the best weather for crossing the Pyrenees...

...but off we set anyway.

Once over the top, it's a long, steep walk down...

...through a beautiful beech forest.

The church at Roncesvalles 

Just to prove we made it, here we are WALKING to dinner in Valcarlos

 

OVER THE MOUNTAINS

THE FINAL ASSULT - FRIDAY 13 MAY IS THE DAY WE CHOSE TO CROSS THE PYRENEES. FOR REASONS TOO COMPLICATED TO EXPLAIN HERE, THE PLANNED 15 KMS STRAIGHT UP BECAME OVER 20 KMS STRAIGHT UP.

St Jean Pied de Port - just before our dinner where we filled up with red wine to help us up the Pyrenees

Friday 13. We'd all overlooked the date...

...and this is what we saw ahead of us.

Watch this space for more exciting pilgrim adventures...

THINKING ABOUT FRIDAY

Three guys practicing to be back seat drivers.

Always time to smell the roses - well, the wild spring flowers, anyway. They're everywhere.

THE BIG THINK
Well, we've been walking a bit and eating and drinking a lot.
So now it's time to THINK - about the big one: Friday's climb from St Jean Pied de Port up the Pyrenees to the Spanish border at Roncesvalles.
So here we are thinking.
PS A few glasses of wine at lunchtime always help the thinking process.

HALF THE JOB IS DONE

We're over half way to Roncesvalles, with three more days to go. 
This is what we've been getting up to. Warning! It's mainly been eating and drinking.

Here we've arrived at somewhere where we're staying the night - but it's a name that's obviously Basque and much too hard for me to spell. But let's have a drink anyway.

Medieval cathedral and pollarded trees

Picnic in Pimbo

VE DAY IN MEZIN

Sunday 8 May - the 71st anniversary of victory in Europe, and, as usual, a quirky, colourful, rural French celebration marked the day.

Here we are with Marianne, symbol of France, on the monument aux morts in Mézin

But, once this morning diversion was over, it was back to the hard yakka, and the serious business of walking began again - in earnest.

Ca y est - outside the Cathedral in Eauze

The main square in Eauze

In the forest, heading towards Aire sur Adour 

WALKING TO THE PYRENEES - DAY 1

THIS IS WHERE IT ALL STARTED - JUST OUTSIDE 

LA PETITE GALERIE IN MEZIN

Official marker in Mézin directing pilgrims to Compostela 

Outside St Jean-Baptiste in Mézin

Heading out of town down rue du Paridis towards the Porte Anglaise
(the village gate where the English were expelled in the middle ages)

Arriving in Fources

Fources from the air (we arrived in foot)

The end of Day 1 of our walk - waiting for dinner at a duck farm near Montreal