Provence always calls to me: Land of painters. Walk with giants. Mountains like titans had dreamed them.
In the footsteps of the great painters. Here’s a selection of my favourites.
Paul Cezanne • ‘Le Grand Pin.’ (près d’Aix en Provence). 1896, 85×92 cm
Paul Cezanne • ‘Mont San Victoire.’ (près d’Aix en Provence). 95 x 65 cm. 1904-1906.
Matisse. La Fenetre Ouverte, Collioure. 1905.
Real or Unreal
It’s surprising to connect a painting to the place where it was painted. The actual land. The light. I walk these places in Provence, the same places in the paintings. I try to find the painting in the landscape, connect the two.
Has overexposure to images made us blind to the beauty around us? We scroll through countless photos, but do we really see? Postcards – sometimes called “clichés” in French – reduce places to just a few familiar, unreal images. I think many of us have lost the ability to truly appreciate what’s right in front of our eyes. Taking a photograph of a scenic view is not the same as painting it. Can we appreciate without photographing? Is photographing an act of appreciation? Can we have the experience of ‘being there’ without photography?
Mass tourism spoils the beauty of a place. Gift shops & car parks, not the Provence as seen by painters who seek beauty. The light here is special, revealing the startling nuances of color and form. This is where Matisse, Cézanne, and many other artists found their inspiration. But how to find this real Provence?
When I paint a place, it takes time. I start to know that place in a way that quickly walking around and photographing it doesn’t reveal. For me, Provence is a place where things seem to slow down. This requires some goofing-off. Observing. Daydreaming. Losing yourself in the landscape. Discovering its secrets.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust. This is what I strive to teach my students: to see the world with fresh eyes. And Provence, with its startling beauty and rich artistic heritage, is the perfect place to cultivate this way of seeing.
Was it all a dream?
‘Provence is a state of mind’… Artists paint their dreams of paradise as much as the real place.
But post-war Provence is not the same place of Les Fauves. Go to Collioure today and you won’t find the unspoilt little fishing port that Matisse & Derain found in 1907. When Signac sailed into Saint Tropez, there wasn’t even a road down to the harbour. Brigitte Bardot running barefoot on the sand, eating ‘une Tarte Tropézienne’, Wicke’s newly invented creamy patisserie. Nowadays, you’ll be lucky to find a car parking place within a few kilometres! Virgin sands are now much prized luxury sunbathing spots, where you would lie close as walruses.
Sprawling modernization has destroyed much of the charm of the once beautiful landscape. Much of the small-scale ‘paysan’ farming that has sculpted the landscape since Antiquity has been plowed under or built over.
Méditerranée
There’s so much light in Provence. It’s such an intense light. Even more so when you are besides the sparkling sea. So it’s not difficult to understand why colour & light are central concerns for painters touched by Provence.
However, there are still greys & muted colours. I’ve seen them. There are dark days, when the sun is obscured.
Adam’s Provence
