A Painting A Week No 125 - Sassi di Matera, Italy

For Sale - 5th June 2013 
Sassi di Matera, Italy
Size: 21 x 15cm
(Postage and handling included)

After scooting back and forth across Italy during the last few years, it was amazing to stumble across the unique old quarter of Matera. The city of Matera is in the Basilicata region of Southern Italy and the Sassi area is a World Heritage site, but it still seems to be relatively unknown. Within the boundaries of a fairly modern city, Sassi di Matera (meaning stones of Matera) lies in two canyons which are crammed with ancient cave dwellings, carved into and projecting from the canyon walls. In fact, it is the most intact example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean area. Over the centuries these cave dwellings have been multiplying and continually used for housing, shops, and the sheltering of animals. Until the 1980's the Sassi di Matera was considered an area of terrible poverty, even after the 1950's, when the government tried to relocate residents living there.  Although it now now been a little gentrified |(but not too much - the boutique hotels are rather scattered!), a wander through the laneways certainly gives you the feel of  'ancient living'. The area and its surrounds also has a large amount of rock churches. What better place to film Mel Gibson's film 'The Passion of Christ'!

Looking down into the Sassi is quite an unbelievable sight, but it really was difficult to capture its essence in photos, mainly due to its size, the fact that its spread over two gorges, and also because you're either looking down into it, or up out of it! With this painting though, I tried to concentrate on a small but fairly prominent area rising up one side, to portray the density and the monotone appearance.

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my  Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at either jackiesinfrance@hotmail.com or jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

Greece to Sydney

Its that time again. We're off on Tuesday on the slow jaunt back to Sydney. It starts with the overnight ferry crossing from Patras to Brindisi, with a a few days en-route in Italy filling our systems with great Italian coffee and pasta. Then to our old stompin' ground in the Languedoc region of France to take care of a few things, enjoy some almond croissants (but not the coffee) before we fly out of Toulouse to Los Angeles. This is the first time Peter and I have flown internationally together - should be fun!  I have a few days in LA to sightsee and do some shopping, then head off to New Zealand for 10 days to spend time with my sisters. I rendezvous with Peter in Sydney on 24th October and we'll be residents of Potts Point for the first month, and then Lane Cove for the following 3 weeks.  Its been over 18 months since I've been back and I'm really looking forward to seeing family and friends in that part of the world.

I'm really hoping to continue with the Art Weekly whilst I'm gone - it may be a bit haphazard, but I'm determined, and I'd like to attempt some Australian and New Zealand themes along with the usuals. I believe there are all sorts of new cafes that need checking out, so perhaps I can try my hand at some of those!

I do have a one day art exhibition planned with Changeable Art in North Sydney on 10th December. There will be plenty of new work lots of small framed and unframed paintings for sale - perfect Christmas presents!

Barcelona then France yet again

Here we are back in France again - how many times have I started a blog with that I wonder!  We had an unscheduled trip solely to collect my French visa, now that its been renewed for another year. The easiest route was to fly Athens/Barcelona which worked out well as I'd always wanted to check out Barcelona!  I was very impressed too - its a beautiful city with lovely wide avenues lined with wonderful decorated buildings with wrought balconies. The Gothic centre though, where we stayed, is totally different and full of fascinating narrow alleys and laneways.

France is freezing cold! It is rather nice to be back but I'm pleased its only briefly, as I suspect the cold weather will get to us before to long! The landscape is looking particularly beautiful considering its winter. I think the most prominent colour is bronze, with the bare vines glowing under the winter light. The rolling hills are framed by the distant mountains, which have a good dusting of snow and generally the whole of the Languedoc looks much drier and browner than where we live in Greece, which was green and lush when we left!

We spent my birthday wandering around Narbonne on a beautiful sunny but cold day, all wrapped up against the weather. There's always something spectacular about these clear winter days in the Languedoc.

The Languedoc and Paris

Link to Photo Album http://picasaweb.google.com/jackiesinfrance 

So before too long, off we went again, this time towards our old stomping ground of the Languedoc where Peter and I did battle with various bits of French bureacracy - not sure whether we've had a win yet, and my visa renewal is sure to be a long ongoing saga. It was nice to be in the familiar serenity of the valleys of vineyards until the weather packed up and we had two days of torrential rain. We did manage to visit Rouquefort and do a tour through the caves where they make the famous smelly cheese. Another damp day we went to Carcassonne, and we also introduced Rita to some of our favourite towns such as Sete (where we also managed to see a Raoul Dufy exhibition - one of my very favourite artists), and Pezenas.

 

Then it was Paris where we spent a week with Rita in a lovely apartment next to the Seine on the very smart Ile St Louis. This small island is like an oasis from the rush of the hectic city. It's almost as if someone dropped a small French village into the center of Paris, with its markets, bakeries, fromageries, cafés and us! Winter struck when we were there - a real wake up after the warmth of Greece, but at least we knew we could leave it behind when we left!

Our days in Paris were spent walking, and eating and shopping (well, Rita and I anyway!), and walking more. It was once again lovely to be there and have enough time to explore those parts I never seemed to get to on previous visits. There was a very big new Monet Exhibition on at the Grande Palais but sadly it was prebooked until November unless one was prepared to queue for 3 hours, which we weren't. We did visit Musee Marmotten though, after a lovely bus ride through to the 16th arrondissment. A lovely gallery of mostly Monet, and well worth the extra effort to get there.

After 6 weeks of wonderful travelling we headed back to the Languedoc in the TGV again - a wonderful way to travel but pity they had to stop the train a few stops earlier than expected - French strikes yet again. We spent a few more days in the Languedoc before another drive back to Greece to settle back into Koroni for our first Greek winter........ whatever that may bring.

Belle France again

Its wonderful to be back in the French countryside. We arrived in France nearly two weeks ago, but our internet access has been almost non-existent – divided between MacDonalds or sitting outside the Uzes Tourism office using their free wifi! Strange that in Greece there are internet cafes everywhere you turn, but a little few and far between here in France. We have just arrived in Paris – had to push our plans forward a day to beat the train strike. The French are particularly grumpy right now about Sarkozi’s pension reforms!We have a week in an apartment here with Rita, and then it will back to the Languedoc to tie up more loose ends, and then time to start heading back to Greece. Its been an amazing trip and we’ve certainly covered a lot of ground, with my hundreds of photos to prove it.

So back to early days in France. 

 We spent 3 days in Menton, just inside the French/Italian border, and the subject of a few of my earlier paintings. In my mind its a more laid back town than the other large places on the Cote D'Azure and a perfect base for visiting Nice or Cannes. Unfortunately though after spending a very busy day in Monte Carlo I was struck down by a 24 hour bug and didn’t get to do much visiting of anything!

Monte Carlo was great though and I was, as usual, totally awestruck by the size and number of opulent boats in the harbour there. A very large Boat Show was just finishing up, so that probably attracted even more boats than usual, and just to really rub it in, when we left the Menton area and headed into St Tropez for lunch a couple of days later, lo and behold there was a regatta underway and with even more boats. I must say, I am beginning to wonder just how many more of the damned things can fit into these small harbours around the Med – as you can see in the St Tropez pic here, you can barely see the buildings.

 

Next stop was a week in an apartment in Uzes which worked well as a base for visiting the westernmost parts of Provence. One little highlight of that stay was the visit to the Haribo lolly factory (makers of jelly bears etc) where Rita and I left armed with various bags of goodies – at least I don’t have to take mine in a suitcase to Australia! We also spent time in Arles, Nimes, L’Isle sur la Sorgue, St Remy de Provence, Aigues Morte and visited Pont du Gard.

Our apartment in Uzes was in the Place aux Herbes – 3 floors up overlooking the square where there was a huge market on the Saturday. Our evening entertainment was the masses of starling-like birds which congregated each evening on the roof of the church outside the kitchen window – they arrived in small groups and assembled all along the roof as the numbers grew, and then when everyone had arrived ..... whoosh they'd all start squawking and take off en masse to the plain trees just outside our bedroom windows in the square where they faffed about and squawked until they’d settled in for the night (unless of course One was a little noisy when One was closing One's shutters..... and then boom.... the sky would darken as they flapped around and squawked before settling in again!

Needless to say I have masses of photos of these all wonderful places, so check out my online photo site http://picasaweb.google.com.au/jackiesinfrance
More soon about the Languedoc and Paris