Jane's cushions

 Jane Revitt, an artist and designer who regularly comes to Les Bassacs, is producing a range of cushions using vintage Ordnance Survey maps. At Christmas she started selling cushions featuring her local area of Hebden Bridge and now has these for sale at a National Trust property in Dartington.

I am trying to find a beautiful map of the Luberon that Jane could use to make our own Les Bassacs cushions!

Jane is a freelance artist and designer working in the theatre, museums, schools and public spaces.   Her ingenious mix of careful design and playfulness makes her installations a joy to see.  Her work often includes the use of text and the spoken word. Have a look at Jane's work on her website and her talking chairs blog.

Salford Museum chair

Calder High School West Yorkshire

story chairs

Royal Armouries Leed

Anemones

Pablo Picasso 'Three Nudes and Anemones'

The weather is mild with a hint of spring in the air, though not warm enough for us to be posing nude with my vase of anemones!

 

David's sculptural interpretation

Man grows moustache

 Mark Cazalet is currently ensconced in Conneticut U.S.A. on a residency with the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation http://www.albersfoundation.org/ , where one of his first acts was to grow a moustache!

 Mark has been working on two recent themes mirror-scapes,  reflected images and repeated images used as diptychs, and working in the (full) moonlit. 


"The lake is an amazing source of inspiration.  I particularly like drawing on it at night from one of the Kayaks, the wind turns the canoe around making fixed observation a little disorientating but so serene and sublime.  Last night there was no moon nor wind so the canoe glides across the inky surface with the stars incredibly bright without and visible artificial lights."

Billy Goat!

The six rams have now been joined by a friendly goat who lets out a bleat like a balloon deflating when you walk past him. 

Sheep!

On Wednesday 6 rams were rather unceremoniously delivered to Les Bassacs in the back of a battered old Renault 5.  The rest of the troupeau (all girls) are in the field below the road.  Every morning they congregate either side of the tarmac to lament their separation.

They lend a gentle,  bucolic air to the place and encourage people to stop, contemplate the scene and chat in the sunshine.  Robert, our neighbour tells us that the last troop of sheep kept in Les Bassacs was owned by his father in law in the 1970's.  The shepherd was castigated by some in-comers from Marseille for allowing the sheep to foul the road as he drove them out to pasture.  The offended second-homer followed the shepherd with a dustpan and brush! 

First Quarter Moon and Venus over Les Bassacs

French Conversation

This splendid manual of conversation was published in 1912 and was found by us on a local tip.  It harks back to a delightfully archaic form of conversation, polite but also frank.  I include a bizarre conversation about a horse which sets the tone!

A French traveler setting out on holiday to England was apparently expecting to paint and write.  There are two pages of vocabulary devoted to writing and painting and three pages of conversation about painting.  Its hard to imagine this being included in a modern phrase book.

Essential vocabulary for a painter

Amsterdam, plein hiver!

Just as the ice is finally starting to melt here, Terry Thompson sent me this beautiful photo of the frozen canal near his studio.  When the canals freeze over, the whole of Amsterdam gets out on the ice to skate.  In Terry's picture you can see two people doing just that. Terry tells me he wasn't tempted, but Bea was out there enjoying it while it lasted. 

The thaw has arrived in Les Bassacs, I am so glad to be able to go outside without being blasted by the icy mistral.  This morning the sun had some real warmth to it and I'm hoping that this is my last snowy blog.

Pistache by the fire

For cat lovers everywhere, Pistache enjoying our wood burning stove.

The Singing Ringing Tree

I am indebted to our friends Will and Bea Rae-Smith

for news and photos of this oak tree near Rustrel which was caught by a farmer's irrigation system as the cold air arrived in the valley.  Will tells us that if you shake the tree the icicles jangle together making a beautiful sound.