Dispatch from the Côte d'Azur

aka paradise

I am back home in the foggy Pacific Northwest, but I started writing this post during my last week at an artist’s residency at the Chateau de La Napoule, where I lived and worked for all of November. It was transformative.

the view of the Mediterranean from my studio. I mean… come on.

I expected to come here, lock myself in this room and rewrite my book proposal for a month like some kind of tortured chain-smoking auteur, but I was so inspired by the overwhelming natural beauty and by my fellow residents (astonishingly talented and brilliant visual artists and writers) that I spent the entire time rediscovering my love of drawing for drawing’s sake, and my core motivations for creating. [Note: I just spent 15 minutes trying to summarize what i’ve “learned” about the creative process, and the value of unstructured time/time in nature/an inspiring community of peers, and what it means for my practise, but it all sounds so sanctimonious and arbitrary so I will leave it for now. I will probably be processing what i've gained here for some time to come.]

I literally woke up every day at the crack of dawn to the sound of waves and the sunlight hitting my face, I went for beautiful seaside runs several times a week after which I jumped directly into the ocean.

??????????

Naturally, I felt compelled to draw things inspired by the ridiculously rich and varied natural phenomena I found steps from my studio.

last photo is of me drawing on the trail for 3 hours. I thought I looked really cool until I tweaked my back and had to painkiller myself to sleep. Yet another reminder that ergonomics = life

I had the time, space, and presence of mind to draw on a larger scale for the first time, and to experiment with dry media. I primarily used my fountain pen, Caran d’Ache pencil crayons and Sennelier dry pastels.

(I had never tried dry pastels before - I bought them on a whim from the local art supply store on my first day. I figured out that I like using them to “fingerpaint” - rubbing a finger on the pastel, and transferring it to the paper. It’s easier to control and less dusty. I was surprised to discover that it feels like a natural transition from watercolour painting in terms of soft imperfect colour blending, but it doesn’t warp your paper and has such a gentle dreamy vibe!)

On the last Friday of the month, we had a public open studio and I got to hang all of my pictures in this sweet little space for all to see. I haven’t ever done this - it felt like elementary school except it was very not. I even made a speech to the 60+ attendees in French! (There is no video evidence so you will just have to believe that it happened.)

From top left: Ghislain Kossi-Brown, Olya Zarapina, Nicholas Aiden, Alexanne Dunn, Anne Fleming, Julie Picard, Megan Fernandes, Melanie Authier, Russell Banx, moi.

me with one wall of stuff! This was taken using an easel as a tripod.

I’ll share detail shots of what I actually drew in a future post, once I get ahold of the better photos that were taken in my studio (by wonderful fellow resident Nicholas Aiden!). I am being notified that this post is already too long for email.

In non-residency-related news, had a culture desk comic about bouldering come out this month, which was a fun reminder that an outside world still existed. I actually drew the comic in my first few days here - it was good to break out of how shell-shocked I was by the infinite beauty and possibility of the landscape by focusing my creative energy on a paid assignment, haha.

Three Memorable Things (chosen from 27 days of non-stop emotional stimuli)

1. I was near the region of France where Van Gogh was institutionalized for a year. During one field trip, I found myself in a landscape that was so ridiculously similar to those in his cypress paintings that it literally took my breath away. Who would’ve thought that the fields were actually that yellow, the olive trees actually that muted mint colour, the distant mountains actually that foggy blue? Ugh.

2. Tempête au Nice, Matisse Museum.

   

   
   Unexpected emotional moments reading the placards in this museum. Matisse went to Nice in 1918 and decided to stay for 4 years because he enjoyed painting from his hotel room so much. A reminder of how wonderful and rare an opportunity it is to be transformed by a place. The placard informed me that he painted this stormy scene and almost left because he was so disappointed by the rotten weather #relatable

3. Ate lunch by myself in this little restaurant. I speak functional french though I am very obviously not french, and ordered a noisette for dessert. “Noisette” is a shot of espresso with a little bit of milk, but also means hazelnut. The very elderly waiter, totally deadpan, brought me a single hazelnut. Three minutes later he replaced it with the coffee.

does he keep a single hazelnut around just to troll tourists, y/n

So that’s that. My time here has been and continues to be a gift. My brain feels like the meniscus of a cup that is about to overflow, it’s like if I move too quickly all of the ideas will fall out. I am doing a lot of journalling and trying to let it soak in.

I was in such a creative rut when I got here, and this has made me realize a lot of things about the direction of my work going forward. I can’t articulate much more than that right now but I’m excited to put some ideas to paper in the coming weeks.

Last photo is of some of the lifelong friends I made this month!

So grateful.

A list of things that i didn’t expect to experience so much of while in the Cote D’Azur.

• Bread. so much bread. Bread at every meal. A new 40 cent crusty baguette as long as my arm every couple of days.*

• French butter on the bread

• Fig jam on the butter on the bread

• sometimes the bread is even toasted and the butter is soft!

• French pears which are somehow unlike any pears I have ever eaten

• Earl grey tea with a lil splash of cream

• Soft mild goat cheese spread on a bite of croissant (??????) i dont think i’ll ever eat a better croissant?? I am ruined forever

• Boygenius’s incredibly sad Christmas song (which I listened to for 3 hours on repeat while drawing a big drawing that wasn’t even sad)

• Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” (probably for the line “nothing ever lasts forever” that also makes me really sad)

• The luxurious magic of jumping into the ocean for six minutes at 8:30am on a Tuesday like it means nothing at all to you

• Irish pubs (mysteriously, everywhere)

• I do not even know how many bottles of rosé i consumed when i truly never drink it, but it was phenomenal and somehow, hangover-free!

• Finally mastering the low-pressure 5k run (not feeling the need to run any more or less than a solid 5k).

*It was only upon returning home that I discovered bread TRULY IS different over there - the flour they use means that you can eat it endlessly and never feel bloated or gross.