La bOiTe dE pOmMeS et La BoUiLLOiRe AnCiEnNe aVeC SeS fLeUrS eT PaPiLLoNs, 2014 Oil on Canvas 1x0.5M

>La Boite de Pommes et La Bouilloire Ancienne< 2014, OIl on Canvas 1x0.5m, Jane Courquin Copyright 2015

This weeks painting began with my beautiful old 1930s cream and green enamel kettle that I picked up early one morning at an antiques market in Abingdon Oxfordshire. I was on my way to a course and couldn't resist. My subsequent late arrival was announced by a carrier bag of clattering pots and pans.

My love affair with enamelware is as strong now as it was back then. This particular pot has appeared in at least two large still life oil  paintings made when we moved to France in 2003. I sold the first ptg to the Immobilier/Estates Agent we bought our barns from and the second to a London Collector who already had quite a few of my paintings she had bought in Oxford.

I have been admiring the still life paintings of the 17th Century Dutch Masters and reinterpreting this classic theme . There are nods to De Heem, Van Ast and others with the subject matter and aspects of the composition. I am tempted to put in a blue ribbon to hold the grapes as was often seen.

 

 

Three Paintings SOLD 'Le ChAmP dEs ChOuX', 'dAhLiA rOuGe' & 'LeS fLeUrS bLaNcS'

 I have been celebrating another brilliant November sale of three paintings to a private collector in France. The Brinjal/Aubergine and Tanners Brown walls are at the darkest end of the rainbow making my paintings glow brightly like gems in the dark.

>LeS PoTs dEs ArTiStEs< SOLD

Following my exhibition of recent work at La Canopee in Ruffec this October I sold my painting  >Les Pots des Artistes<  to Shani Rhys James MBE described as > one of the most successful painters of her generation< (Wikipedia).  It was a wonderful compliment .

>L'EtE En ChAReNtE< SOLD

EXPO A LA CANOPEE RUFFEC OCT 2014

 

 

 The Mayor of Ruffec talked about the importance of Art to the Charente on Saturday 18th October 2014 standing in front of a selection of my paintings on exhibition at La Canopee in Ruffec .
 I was proud to be invited to exhibit by D. Retouret, former photographer for the Charente Libre, with four  French Artists from the region.
 It was a great success and there was a full audience to enjoy the event.

Les Arbres et les Champs Verteuil-sur-Charente, OiL on Canvas

Oil on Canvas 100x50cms

Les Dahlias et la Vue de la fenetre Verteuil-sur-Charente SOLD

Oil on Canvas 120X40cms

Le CaFeTiEre OrAnGe

 

 

I have been slowly working on this oil painting in my studio over the last few weeks. The orange enamel coffee pot was a present from a painter friend when I lived in Oxford and I found the large metal cafetiere in a junk shop. I love its facetted sides that allow me to create a shallow depth on an otherwise flat patterned surface.

La cOnFiTuRe d'OrAnGe AmErE 2014 OiL on CaNvAs 100x50cms

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SuMMeR iN tHe ChArEnTe 2014 Oil on Canvas 60x60cms SOLD

jane Loveday Courquin >L'EtE dAnS La ChArEnTe< 2014 Oil on Canvas 60x60cms

What more is there to say? Here comes the summer ! I'm off to have an apero by our newly installed hand built ceramic water feature flowing like a three tiered champagne fountain into the lily padded fish pond .

tHe PoT of GoLd 2014

jane Loveday Courquin >the PoT of GoLd< Oil on Board 2014

At the Art House my husband and fellow artist Nichollas Hamper and I  have facilities for ceramics as well as painting. There are always handfuls of handmade jugs and pots lying around the studios made mostly out of  ''la passion pour l'inutile'' as Jean Giono once wrote . The jug on the right is one of these. My belle Maman June Hamper is also a potter and today is her birthday so it is at once a celebration of her and also the afterglow of an amazingly warm and sun filled Summer Solstice .

bLaCkBiRd aNd dAffS 2014 Oil on Canvas 41x33cms



jane Loveday Courquin >bLaCkBiRd & dAffS< 2014 Oil on Canvas 41x33cms

A fabulously warm and sunny few weeks breathes warmth through my palette and colours are brighter and more thickly spread as the blackbird sings in the spring and then the sizzling start of a French summertime whilst fields and skies glow with a pink and amber haze.

Le JaRdIn dEs CuReS 2014 Oil on Canvas 90x30cms

jane Loveday Courquin >Le JaRdIn dEs CuReS< 2014 Oil an Canvas 90x30cms 

A healing medicinal garden is to be found at Tusson providing a restful pause for pilgrims on the Route de St Jaques de Compostelle that threads its way through France to Spain. I often draw there and enjoy studying the myriad of medieval botanical symbols for various herbs, plants and trees to be found in the guide to the garden. The painting > Le JaRdIn dEs CuRes< is inspired by these visits.


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Le JaRdIn dE TuSsOn ReViSiTeD 2014

>Le JaRdIn dEs CuReS~composition I<  COURQUIN 2014

 The beautiful medicinal garden at Tusson will soon be reopen after being put to sleep for the Winter.
It is only a short drive from my studio on the 'Route de St Jacques de Compostelle'. These are a few preliminary watercolour sketches for a larger ptg that will replace an earlier one on this subject that was sold.

>Le JaRdIn dEs CuReS ~ composition II<

Le PrEmIeR PrInTeMpS

>Le PrEmIeR PrInTeMpS<  jane Loveday COURQUIN 2014  acrylic on canvas 80x80cms

LeS TuLiPeS

>LeS TuLiPeS< COURQUIN 2014 Acrylic on canvas 80x80cms

 Spring burst forth in La Charente this year of the Horse at a strident gallop . Pearly snowdrops, crowns of indigo, white and gold crocuses, tulips of all colours of the rainbow popped their sleepy heads up, up and up . The garden has become a floral feast that I devour every morning with relish and painting utensils. And so a bouquet of tulips splashed onto the canvas in broad and lavishly coloured strokes.

>LeS TuLiPeS< COURQUIN 2014 



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Thank You for visiting !

Cyclamen (croquis pour un tableau)

 

 

January can be a cruel and colourless month. The acquisition of a giant cyclamen was the perfect antidote. Here it is painted in acrylics on paper as a preparatory sketch for a later painting.

Cornish Blue and Basil

>Cornish blue and basil< Oil, Acrylic and Gesso on canvas

I am inspired by everyday things I find haphazardly placed on my kitchen shelves. I pick up shells and pebbles on Cornish beaches and recall Walter Benjamin's famous text about personal narrative and oral history . The beauty and transcience of a butterfly in the garden here in France hovering above a cup of sunlight. And Basil , my Father's and Great Uncles name becomes at once a handy culinary herb as well as strands of  family history.
The chair at my table is the Loveday-Lewis one that belonged to my partner Nichollas Hamper's and Beau-Frere Billy Childish's Grandmother.
There is the ghost of a clock in the background. This is not real time. It is a poetic space that wavers between reality and imagination.