Couvent d'Ô - Eglise Louise Bourgeois

 The Couvent d'Ô, owned by banker and artist's book publisher Jean Claude Meyer, on the lower slopes of Bonnieux, is an unconsecrated chapel with work commissioned from Louise Bourgeois.

This hidden treasure, built in the 17th century but sold by the church in the French revolution, has had many lives, even functioning for a time as a silk-worm barn.  It is rarely open (July and the first half of September) but we managed to sneak a visit there one September Sunday.

the font in Carrara marble

It took two years for Louise Bourgeois to conceive and make the pieces for the space and the work was installed in 2001.  Before she began, she was asked if she believed in God to which she did not respond.  However, the work evokes and embodies the spirituality of the chapel and her fabric dolls of the crucifix and the Virgin Mary are very tender. 

tiny felt crucifix

Virgin Mary

bronze spider

A stark bronze cross made from a 'suffering arm' and a clenched and unclenched fist completes the stunning mix of sensual and glacial.

Abstracting with Terry Thompson

Terry's week, the last of our season had a rather unpredictable start with mixed weather and occasional rain.

By the middle of the week the situation was much improved

and the group were able to have the last picnic of the season at Venasque looking out across the valley towards Mont Ventoux.

David's week 15th-22nd September

David's week was blessed with beautiful weather, a perfect temperature (28C) for painting en plein air. The group settled into a routine of working in both the morning and afternoon sessions, something that in the heat of the summer is rarely possible. 

Saturday brought a change in the weather that was marked in Les Bassacs by this beautiful but apocalyptic sky.