View with mountains and olive trees.

I've just finished an oil painting which will be a Christmas gift for my parents in law. They have a nice collection of paintings and appreciate art. The view is from their terrace looking towards an neighbors house with olive trees in the foreground.

La Provence

This morning came the news that myself and my father in law are on the cover of La Provence, newspaper. A local journalist took a photo of us at work on the houses that were flooded. That's me in the blue, covered in mud and not looking too cool. Michel is in front in red.

Tadelakt and Flood

I just finished a course in Tadelakt which took place in the hills around Maubec, south of France. It was an excellent course, taught by a Moroccan decorator named Jamal Daddis, author of the book, Le Tadelakt. If you are interested you can find this on Amazon.

Tadelakt is a form of lime which, when finished and polished correctly has the ambiance of marble but unlike marble is warm, impermiable to water, easily sculpted and extremely nice to look at and touch.

Great course, taught by a great teacher.

While we were studying, it began to rain and it rained hard. It didn't stop for 24 hours and many people were flooded out. All day today was spent helping people to get the waves of mud out of their houses. One local person had a pool of water around their house which was a metre and a half deep. That's about five feet. So their entire house was swamped. A few locals, the pompiers, myself and my father in law, spent the day separating their things from the mud and stones washed in by the waves of water. It looked like a complete disaster but by the end of the day we had made huge progress. Drains were unblocked and the mud cleared away. There's more to do tomorrow but it's looking good.

Here's a photo of an orchard beside the house that was flooded. Below that is a photo of the course in tadelakt.

Nude strike in Paris.

Hi
One of those things that have been difficult to find in Paris has been life drawing. I am restricted to only two locations, at present, where I can do this kind of drawing but had heard rumors that others exist. Despite having many french artist friends, none have not been forthcoming in advice on the topic.

Today I read that there has been a nude strike in the center of Paris to support the models who work in these mysterious places. Apparently the Marie has been organising these things all along. Who would have thought to look there?

You might find this interesting to read.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/16/france-art-life-models-protest

http://www.tjbyrne.com