Bonniex to Burritos!

Well, it feels ages since I've upated! I've been keeping very, very busy with school. We started painting in the landscape near Mt. St. Victoire. Mt. St. Victoire? What's that?! Well, I'll tell you. It's just outside of Aix-en-Provence. Mt. St. Victoire is famous for the paintings done by Paul Cezanne, who lived and spent most of his life working in and around Aix-en-Provence. St. Victoire happens to be one of the most beautiful places to paint, in my opinion. I feel so lucky to be here! We went out to the "landscape", as John and Alan like to call it, 3 times last week. The first day I drew just to get a feel for what I was up against. I was so frustratedthe first day because I couldn't figure out what i should draw, where to start, where to end and relaying that all back on paper. It's such a vast area that it's really hard to narrow it down. (Especially, being the first time I was painting in a landscape area). I think I just got a little bit of stage fright the first day. The second day, I went after it. I found a nice spot after a little trek through the woods overlooking a house with these great burnt sienna hills swooping into the lush trees surrounding. I was slow getting started and didn't have enough time to finish what I was doing, so I will have to come back to that one! The third day I walked about 10 mins from our drop off point to a spot along a road overlooking the property where Les Marchutz were posted for painting. I found a great view but had difficulty because I became too concerned with little details whereas, I could've just kept an eye out and painted. It wasn't a tragedy, I just didn't get to finish anything I had started!

Friday was a WONDERFUL day. After a good french class, I walked to class with Charley to discuss our question for seminar. Each week for seminar we're given material to look over and respond to a question given by Alan or John. The only expection is the two students who will lead the discussion with a question based upon what we were doing in our field studies and what we were studying in text. Our text this week came from Flannery O'Connor, one of great American writers. It wasn't one of her short stories but actually, prose. From "Mystery and Manners" we studied "The Nature and Aim of Fiction". The discussion was based on our question, "The nature and aim of fiction is art. If painting is fiction, how can we put truth in it? What do we look for in reality to retell these truths, in painting or art?" The majority of our seminar focused on how we relay truth into the fiction we're creating. It was actually a very interesting day, as most friday's are because of seminar. Everyone becomes very animated, opinionated and stubborn with in the confines of our topic, but at the end of the day we still can leave the studio with a smile.

After Seminar, Kate, O'Neil, Nick, Katherine and I went to park and threw the disc around for 2.5 hours. It was exactly what I needed after a long Friday.

I came home had some dinner and finished my night with a little bit of wine and watched "I love you, man". I didn't go out because early saturday morning we were gearing up for our field trip to the Vaucluse.

The Vaucluse is situated in the southwest of France. Some of it's most important cities are Avignon, Apt, Orange and Cavaillon. Vaucluse is bordered by the Rhône to the west and the River Durance to the south. Mountain ranges occupy a large portion of the Vaucluse, with Mont Ventoux, also known as "the Giant of Provence". Other important mountain ranges include the Dentelles de Montmirail, the Monts de Vaucluse, and the Luberon, which is where we were situated for the majority of the day. Our first stop was a small town that i don't remember the name of. We didn't stay very long, but had enough time to get a few good pictures and use the toilet.

We were on our way to start a great day. We we're dropped off up in the Luberon on the side of the road where we were to walk from the drop off point to the city. Along the way John pointed out some very interesting trees, one in particular being the Green Oak. The Greek Oak is a tree that doesn't lose it's leaves and stays green all year round. It's really quite fascinating. We continued on our walk to a place that had a "do not enter" sign on the trees, but with disregard we made our way to the plateau where we had a the beginning portions of our day. John read passages from Christopher Alexander's "The Timeless Way of Building" as we overlooked the city of Bonniex nestled in the mountain. It was such an amazing experience hearing Alexander's words juxtaposed against the feeling we were getting by looking at this city. It was so simple, untouched and modest, that it literally brought me to tears. After, about an hour of talking and discussing our thoughts and the ideas from the text we made our way to the city.

We came to a the first big house where we noticed oval shaped windows called "the eye of the bull" as well as the many features this 12th century town had to give to us. We had about an hour to walk around the city, grab lunch and meet back at the bus at the base of the city. We walked up to the cathedral at the top of the hill getting a great view of the outer lying lands below. Descending to the lower parts of the city, we got some food and kept smelling this delicious food. John told us that we were right by one of the best restaurants in not only Provence, but in all of France, Le Fournil. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time, to stay and have a meal because we were on a tight schedule.

Making our way back to the bus, we all reconnected by a small Boulangerie. Our next stop was Lacoste. We arrived and walked through the forest a little bit and made picnick in a shady area. It was a great way to reengergize for the rest of our trip.

Our next stop brought us to a dirt road where we got off. The town of Gordes is known for it's Bories which we were about to find. John took us through the forest on a hike to see these Bories. Bories are huts made from stone. The dates are unclear when they were errected, but man, are they great. Some Bories have up to 5 or 6 rooms. They are incredible structures situated in the middle of no where. It was great hiking to find something as cool as those. We sat in one of the Bories for about 20 mins just taking it in. This particular one had 5 rooms in it. All of which were equipped with a small window. Great place for taking long exposure photos! :) I had a great time playing with my camera in the rooms. I got some pretty great pictures as well.

After our hike, we walked back to the bus to go Abbaye de Senenque, a cistertian monestary. Because John has been there so many times, he was able to take us on a tour instead of doing a normal tour. The first half hour of our tour through the different rooms and areas of the monestary was in complete silence, paying respect to the ground we were on. And it complete revolutionized the whole experience. The church itself had the craziest acoustics I've ever heard in my life. This monastry in particular was for Gregorian Chant, that's why the sound absorbed and reverberated what was sent. It is a muscians dream to have something like that. The monestary held many stories with in architecture and also, in history. We were more focused on the architecture which allowed us to see the simplicity that these monks, lived and still do today.

A long day closed on the bus ride home as we returned to Aix with the sounds of Gregorian Chant overhead. Once we arrived in Aix, we decided we should all grab some dinner and bring it over to Mary's apartment for some more quality Marchutz time. Martha had found a mexican place earlier in the week and we all started drooling at the sound. Let me tell you, I've been CRAVING mexican food since the last day I was in the US. When we got there I was never happier to be drinking a Desperado waiting for a burrito. Everyone recieved their food and we were off to Monoprix to get a few bottles of wine.

We had an amazing time conversing and just enjoying one anothers company. A few glasses of wine, some singing and interpretive dance by Nick, we headed out into the night. We went to the Cesar where we had a few glasses of beer + a Giraffe (which is this huge 3 lt tube full of beer). Our night ended at the Jazz Club where we danced for a while and parted ways around 2:30.

I woke up the next morning with a terrible headache...!

Let's jsut say I may never drink Port wine again.

Sunday I spend the day doing copies of master paintings at the studio. I finished the night by watching Olympique Marseille vs. Monaco. Marseille was defeat 2-1, but no big deal for me. I don't know much about them.

I didn't sleep very well because of a ridiculous migrane i had in the middle of the night. With little to no sleep, I did some of my better work in the landscape which was encouraging for me!

This Friday, I'll be going to Arles & St. Remy for our second field trip!

When you're a Marchutz, life is good!