Dealer's Choice Exhibition

This painting was done in France, June 2006. I was painting with three other artist friends, Meg, Margie and Susie. We have become affectionately known as "The March Sisters".

We drove from Néons-sur-Cruse to St. Pierre de Maillé with easels in tow. It was a sunny and hot - if one is standing in the sun as I was - day.

Standing on the side of a "ruelle" with the river at my heels, this charming flower covered house called out to me. I was so beguiled by it, that I sat up my stuff in a bunch of nettles and started to work.

As Meg and I painted - she was smart enought to stand in the shade - music came to our ears from the open windows. A cello concert! What a hard, hard job, standing in France, listening to cello music and painting. It's a rough life sometimes.

Nevertheless, we perservered, and this is the result of my effort. The owner of the house, John Cooke, an Englishman, lives part of the year in this house in France and the other part in the Far East. He came to his window, and saw us. What a great site it was, he was gleaming in the sunlight, and I quickly sketched him in. The painting is executed with brush and palette knife is is now on display in the Dealer's Choice exhibition which just opened at the Schumacher Gallery in Bexley, OH - near Columbus. The exhibition features works by artists of seven galleries in the area. First time an exhibition of this nature has taken place in the central Ohio area.

Painting is called At the Window or A la fenetre, but I now think that I should have called it An Englishman in France. It's 8" x 10", oil on a RayMar Panel.