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 



detail

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.

>Les Abricots< SOLD Private Collection

Summer 2012 was a fabulous year for our small >Abricot< tree . Its delicious fruit were the inspiration for the start of a new painting. After a slow process evolving over the next year the finished painting came to fruition in the summer of 2013.
It contains a much treasured petite antique black cafetiere  given to me by friend and local Artist Florence Sohm that often makes a familiar appearance in my work. We are surrounded by the Cognac vineyards and there is an abundance of  >les raisins<  for wine , pineau , cognac and feasting. The Compotier is always brimming over with grapes during the season. 
The print on the table is taken from my collection of vintage sheets sourced at the local Depo Vente.
The table swims in an ambiance of  >Tiffany< blue as a nod to one of my favourite books and films > Breakfast at Tiffanys<.
The tiny wild daffodil and even smaller wild bluebells carpet the woods that belong to the Chateau de Verteuil where we go to cut wood for our sustainable winter fuel at the beginning of the New Year until early Spring.

The Field of Winter Cabbages 2013 SOLD

jane Courquin > Field of Winter Cabbages< 2013

This is my winter landscape canvas completed late October , early November 2013. On late Friday afternoons I would make the short trip to the local Ferme Bio to buy my weekly organic vegetables. This field of winter cabbages is  seen through a space in the hedge row. 

jane Courquin watercolour sketch for the painting > Field of Winter Cabbages<