>Les Abricots< SOLD Private Collection

Summer 2012 was a fabulous year for our small >Abricot< tree . Its delicious fruit were the inspiration for the start of a new painting. After a slow process evolving over the next year the finished painting came to fruition in the summer of 2013.
It contains a much treasured petite antique black cafetiere  given to me by friend and local Artist Florence Sohm that often makes a familiar appearance in my work. We are surrounded by the Cognac vineyards and there is an abundance of  >les raisins<  for wine , pineau , cognac and feasting. The Compotier is always brimming over with grapes during the season. 
The print on the table is taken from my collection of vintage sheets sourced at the local Depo Vente.
The table swims in an ambiance of  >Tiffany< blue as a nod to one of my favourite books and films > Breakfast at Tiffanys<.
The tiny wild daffodil and even smaller wild bluebells carpet the woods that belong to the Chateau de Verteuil where we go to cut wood for our sustainable winter fuel at the beginning of the New Year until early Spring.

The Field of Winter Cabbages 2013 SOLD

jane Courquin > Field of Winter Cabbages< 2013

This is my winter landscape canvas completed late October , early November 2013. On late Friday afternoons I would make the short trip to the local Ferme Bio to buy my weekly organic vegetables. This field of winter cabbages is  seen through a space in the hedge row. 

jane Courquin watercolour sketch for the painting > Field of Winter Cabbages<

FrEsQuEs

 

jane Courquin >La Joie< plaster on wood 2013

Over the summer and intermittently throughout 2013 I have been experimenting with painting on plaster together with fellow Artist Nichollas Hamper . It affords luminosity and absorbs pigment readily. Most recently we ran an All Day Art Workshop to give our students the opportunity to experience the virtues of a plaster support for themselves. It was so successful we are repeating the event in late January to allow on going projects to evolve and new ones to emerge.

a BiRd iN tHe HaNd OcT2013

>Mauve Field with Blackbird<  80x80 cm

This canvas continues my exploration into painting the local landscape here in the Charente, France. Mauves seem to pervade everything I see at the moment . A signature blackbird stands atop a winter cabbage grown at the Ferme Bio where I go to buy my weekly veg.



detail
 

LeS dAhLiAs OcT2013

Summer's last blasts of colour come in the form of different shaped and coloured dahlias that spring up in the garden as Summer closes and Autumn settles in. I have attempted to capture the changing of seasons in this painting which also includes some of the everyday materials of the Artiste-peintre.

LeS ChAmPs de ToUrNeSoLs OcT2013 SOLD

 Summer does not leave quietly in the Charente, but rather ends in a final burst of colour with the last sunflowers . The harvested flowers then leave fields of repetitive short sticks which I have also attempted to capture in this fieldscape painting.

 

ArTiStS PoTs SOLD

Here is my > Pots des Artistes <  panoramic oil painting completed this summer . It began life a few years ago as a painting about being in India and  has since been continued as a painting about living in France and resolved itself as a still life of pots and cups. Some are from around my studio and others allude to Artists who have influenced my work. 1930s textile prints drift across the paint surface . I paint what I cherish.

>La Paix< SOLD Private Collection France

> La Paix < Oil on canvas has recently been acquired by a private collector in La Charente , France .

The Cherry Pickers

Les Cerises

 When the cherry trees bear fruit we dig out our old enamel bowls and head out to gather . This large oil painting was started last summer during the cherry season and finished recently after picking cherries at my friend Lisa's.

Paysages japonais

jane Courquin -sketch for  >Cafetière et Poele < 2011

 In 1992 I travelled to Japan to visit my elder brother and his Japanese wife . It is a beautiful country that left an indelible impression on me . These sketches are from a couple of years ago, and I can still see the resonances.

jane Courquin -sketch  

jane Courquin -sketch for > le bol japonais <

Painting and Textiles

1920s French Wallpaper

1920s French Wallpaper

jane Courquin plant pigment on paper 2012

I came across some wonderful old French wallpaper samples from the 1920s that have been invaluable to my work and have become part of one of my paintings from 2012.

Each sample shows a variation in colour way and the green pink and grey one gives a little more information about the design.

I have always enjoyed early 20th century textiles as well as paintings from that era and enjoy the way I can interweave both disciplines through my own work.

My plant pigment sketch is inspired by an anonymous 1930s textile sample in one of my textile books.





jane Courquin ~Art Deco textile print on 100% cotton 2012

Copyright jane Courquin 2012 

 

 We will be exhibiting in the Charente at Atelier 32 from June until September 2013 and at the Verteuil Arthouse Studios continually Sur Rendez-Vous.
 





jane Courquin ~ oil painting on board 2011

jane Courquin ~ oil painting on board 2011



jane Courquin >Le Premier Printemp< Acrylic and Oil on Canvas 80 x 80 cms 2013







Le bol bleu avec quarze, quarze rose,  et jaspe rouge


I started this painting as an attempt at putting more geometry in to my paintings and limited myself to a still life of one blue bowl and three oval gems . I had three to hand which were crystal quarz,, rose quarz and red jasper . Each has its own individual properties that I also considered .The palette was deliberately muted so I felt better able to concentrate on form. However, the colours seem to have taken on an
 unexpected dynamic of their own .

 

 

 

 
 

,

Le Champ de Tournesols

 Edging towards an ending , having said almost everything I wanted to say in this painting . There are still a few remarks left to add... perhaps in French Ultramarine . There is still a lot of  >empty< space , but that allows the rest to breathe .

Painting in Progess 18/05/2013

 I am enjoying painting sunflowers whilst waiting for some summer sunshine to flood the fields . This canvas began life as a group of people to illustrate a painting exercise to a student . I rather approve of the way the figures have become sunflowers like the Greek Myth of Clytie. She went into the garden every day looking for the sun in a vain attempt to find Apollo, rather than getting on with her work. Finally Apollo shot her with an arrow and she turned in to a sunflower .

La Charente ~ le Paysage

local sketches

At the end of July and through August the fields in La Charente are awash with sunflowers and the skies are a high dome of lapis lazuli . I have been working from last years sketches and recordings, but I am already thinking ahead to this years crop so there is a lot of imagined time future in there too.
Cycles around the rural roads here lead to concealed buildings and walled potagers , built from the local honey coloured stone .



still life in a landscape with le Creuset frying pan and sunflowers

Still Life with Indian Butterfly

Work in Progress

 

I started this painting a year or so ago and only recently ( a few months ago ) rediscovered it abandoned in my storage of unfinished work . This time i had a better idea in which direction i wanted to go with it . Its still not finished, but is a good deal closer to an ending . The indian butterfly is a mix of indian red and ultramarine and is the most recent addition. It awaits some markings once this layer has dried .

 

 

The spots are added and a few coloured glazes to the front pots and plates . The right hand side obviously needs some attention and resolution . I narrowed the front rhs plate, but will most probably have to re stretch it width wise to balance what sits above it on the picture surface . The halo of light showing its original position is just about discernible. There are also some very tiny orange red marks of distinction to add to some of the white spots on the indian butterfly. 

 

 

 

 

La PeTiTe CaFeTièRe dE fLoReNcE SOLD

>La Petite Cafetière de Florence< Oil on Canvas 2013

A favourite pot given to me by my dear friend Florence makes an appearance in this at once subtle and high contrast Still Life oil painting. The knife and lemon refer to a long line of my painting heros who have treated this simple and evocative subject.

Ile de Ré enamelware with sunflowers & roses 2013

>Ile de Ré enamelware with sunflowers & roses< 2013 oil on canvas

In early April 2013 fellow painter Nichollas Hamper and myself went to the Ile de Ré  , a remote island off La Rochelle with good intentions to paint. We took bicycles and cycled almost everywhere on and off the known cycle routes with a small group of friends . We were fortunate as the Sunday Brocante was just around the corner from the house we were staying in . The enamel treasures I found there have found their way in to my most recent painting .
The plate is a nod to Vanessa Bell's ceramic output..
The sunflowers and roses are plentiful in the Charente and appear in many of my works.
The waves seem to push through the painting from the top to the bottom of the canvas.