During my workshop in Giverny, France, a few months ago, we visited Monet’s garden one morning, and then, after lunch, took a side trip to the nearby village of Vernon, famous for a beautiful old mill that sits on the River Seine. (I shared the journaling from that day in an earlier post.)
My students and I set up to sketch on the banks of the river where we had a perfect view of the mill. I taught a short lesson and then we dove right in and began drawing. I completed my drawing and got a good bit of the painting done, but we had to cut our session short when a storm blew in and we had to make a hasty retreat back to the bus.
The mill was a complex subject, and my students found it challenging to draw, but they did a great job on their sketches and managed to finish them up back in the studio.
I had to wait until I was back home to finish my sketch, but I already had a rough idea of what I was going to do with it. When I was in Vernon, I had penciled in a note in the upper right-hand corner that said “Town symbol – shield. History of Old Mill”. It would serve as a memory-jogger when I finished the page later on.
When I’m on location and have a chance to take in all the different facets of the area where I’m sketching, I usually try to formulate a plan for the page. That’s when I’m most engaged and stimulated by what I’m seeing, and I find that it’s easier to come up with ideas at that time. I make sure to take photos of everything I might possibly want to use to complete the page, like other nearby scenes, objects, signage, or decorative motifs on gates, fences, tile work, stone, etc. That gives me plenty of subjects from which to choose when I’m putting together a composite-style page.
The first thing I did to finish this page at home was to reevaluate the painting. I darkened some of the washes, added some linework to the water , painted more stones on the bridge pillars, and added more texture to the mill’s roof.
And I added a few pigeons.
They may look more like crows, but c’est la vie!
Next came the part that is the most time-consuming for me – all the extra finishing stuff that goes into a page like this. It doesn’t take long to do the historical research; it’s the task of condensing a voluminous amount of information into a paragraph or two that’s the most challenging.
First I chose a lettering style for the title and decided on the size and placement. It was inked with permanent black ink and painted with watercolor.
Next, I painted Vernon’s city crest…
then a brief history of the mill was added…
And, finally, I wrote a little bit about the story behind the Vernon city crest which features three bunches of watercress tied with golden ropes. (I used gold metallic paint for the ropes.)
Whew! It was finally done, and I was happy that I managed to fit in everything I wanted to include on the page.
I like how the Old Mill stands proud on the left side of the two-page spread, and the arched bridge leads your eye over to the journaling. The birds on the roof add a touch of life, and the sheaf of wheat hints at the early history of the mill.
The Old Mill was a favorite subject for the Impressionists who painted in the area around Giverny. Claude Monet himself painted it in 1883 (see the painting here). And now I have, too! 🙂
To read earlier posts about this France travel journal, check out these links:
One Comment
Beautiful pages! Love your posts that let us into your process and how you think through the page layout, painting, and steps. It always helps!