Cortes Study, 5x7

"Pastoral Scene after Cortes", 5x7 after Eduard Leon Cortes

From Wikipedia: Édouard Leon Cortès (1882–1969) was a French post-impressionist artist of French and Spanish ancestry. He is known as "Le Poete Parisien de la Peinture" or "the Parisian Poet of Painting" because of his diverse Paris cityscapes in a variety of weather and night settings.

I discovered Cortes a few months ago through a post on Facebook, and fell in love with his country landscapes. Although he is predominately known for his cityscapes of Paris, it was those rustic country scenes that really charmed me. I know a lot of artists who copy the Old Masters in order to learn from them. I haven't done much of this, but yesterday I decided to try my hand at doing a little copy of one of Cortes's country scenes. I learned a lot from this study and will certainly do more of these practical little studies in the future.

Here is the image of the painting that I saw on Facebook. Unfortunately, I don't know the title.

Untitled- Eduard Leon Cortes

"In the shadow of the Vaucluse", 16x12, oil on masonite

"In the shadow of the Vaucluse", 16x12, oil on masonite

I was just discussing with a friend recently how fortunate Europeans are. They can just hop in their cars or get on the train and within a few hours they are in an area with a totally different culture, cuisine and language from where the the trip originated. That's the beauty of Europe and I really long to go back there one of these days.

My goal in painting this scene was to sharply constrast the light and shadow passages. In Provence, the light is incredibly beautiful- rather orangey in nature with amazingly deep blue skies, and so I contrasted orange against blue and raw umber in this painting to show the shadow patterns that exist within this ancient alleyway in Provence which lies in the shadow of the Vaucluse mountains and the castle of the Marquis de Sade.

Doorway in Provence

SOLD

"Doorway in Provence", 12x16, oil on canvas panel-

About a year ago I painted a little 5x7 inch painting that I called "Front Entrance". (Go here to my website if you wish to see it.) I was delighted that it sold for a very good price, and have often thought about painting another one like it. This week I had the chance to do just that when another artist friend who recently sold her farmhouse in Provence and moved back to the states, provided this photo that she took of another front entrance taken in St Paul de Vence, a hilly little Provencial village on the French Riviera. As you can see from the photo below, the building had a similar doorway and a potful of those lovely orange nasturtiums cascading playfully over the pots. My dilemma was whether or not to subdue the nasturtiums in order to make the purple bougainvillea the center of interest. I don't think either one won, frankly. The painting is a bit busy , but filled with luscious , juicy paint and thick texture from my trusty palette knife. Here is the reference photo that I used:




>a Painting a day, Daily painters, original art , affordable original art, painting of a doorway in Provence, colorist art,paintings of doorways, painting of St. PAul de Vence, palette knife paintings,Maryanne Jacobsen original oil paintings, paintings of Provence and European landscapes