Thursday, February 08, 2007

Ecluse et Village


This work depicts one of the many stops we made on our journey along the Midi Canal: the penichette (houseboat) in an ecluse (loch) in front of a walled village. Local wines, homemade marmalades and pates were often advertised upon a wine barrel outside the door of a tiny room that long ago was probably a tool shed in the centuries-old loch keepers' houses. The cypress tree is a symbol of welcome and they often lined parts of the canal and the streets leading to villages - here I've painted 7 cypresses to represent the friendly villagers we encountered who, with patience and good humour, tried to understand our attempts to communicate with them in French each day.

2 comments:

Alexandria said...

Wow! I am greatly impressed with this painting. I don't think that it will be yours for very long as it is an attractive piece.

Merisi said...

Thank you for your nice comment on my blog.
I'm myself dreaming of travelling to Portugal one day, and as far as your travel plans are concerned, I imagine that Lissabon would be a perfect city for a painter to visit.

Vienna's is maybe at its loveliest when the lilacs bloom, or at Christmastime. I myself like best the atmosphere that it exudes, changing again and again at the turn of a street corner. I find the city a very warm and welcoming place.