Peinture de paysage

Thank you for having a look at my website. This is a short greeting in English, my mother tongue, and perhaps yours, to explain my approach to painting. I started with pencils and neocolor oil pastels, but quickly adopted watercolours, some of which you can see on this site. When my three children were small, I always took a block of paper and watercolour paints with me when we went on trips to scenic places, like Jersey or the Seine valley, so that I could use any chance I had to paint the landscapes. After that, a divorce and years of studying at Fribourg university as a mature student while being a solo parent made art difficult. While teaching full-time I later met Bernard Bailly, an artist too, and together we started out on a journey in acrylic landscape painting and in life.

We chose to use acrylic paints on canvas because I wanted to continue painting en plein air. Acrylic paints generally dry quickly so transporting the work was less complicated than with oils, and I was able to use much larger canvasses too, which suits my temperament. Plein air painting is vital to my inspiration. I start with some outlines with a paint brush and then continue painting with great concentration for about three hours, until all the patterns of light and shade have changed dramatically, forcing me to call it a day. In settled weather it is sometimes possible to return to the same place the next day and continue the painting, but the cloudscapes will certainly be different. Usually I prefer to continue working on the canvas in the studio, using the intense impressions I have made during the plein air session and a few photographs for reference. How flat and uninteresting they seem in comparison! Rapidly changing light conditions, as well as physical difficulties such as wind, uneven ground, heat or cold, make every plein air painting session unique. Here you experience the landscape physically rather than graphically or intellectually. In hot weather acrylic paint may dry too quickly, of course, while in a cold damp river valley like the Vallée de la Loue or the Sarine in Fribourg, it may be like painting in oils. Rain of course will make painting impossible. I remember once struggling to paint under a rocky overhang in Gordale Scar at Malham in the Yorkshire Dales, in the footsteps of James Ward, to the amusement of some schoolgirls! Having spent so long using watercolours, beginning each painting with a translucent sky and clouds, I am very aware of the air I am breathing, the light and the ever-changing ballet of clouds in the sky, painting air and not just the land.  I am particularly drawn to the golden light of late afternoon. Sometimes impossible conditions mean that I have to start a painting in the studio rather than en plein air, but it is always of a place I have painted before or which I know well from exploratory walks. When is a painting finished? I continue a painting until I have the impression that I could physically walk in the landscape I have depicted, but can still see a certain urgency and liveliness in the brush work.

I was born in Yorkshire, grew up not far from the Jurassic coast in Dorset and here I am in the countryside in the foothills of the Swiss Alps where I have now spent most of my adult life. After more than twenty years of full-time teaching at Collège St-Michel, Fribourg, teaching English language and literature to students up to university entrance, I am now retired and with my husband Bernard we are still developing our careers in landscape painting, having recently had major solo (as a pair!) exhibitions in museums such as Fribourg Art and History Museum, Charmey Museum and the Museum of Murten, as well as in art galleries. For each exhibition we work intensely on a new theme, as you will see on this website. Our styles are complementary but very different, with Bernard mainly working in the studio on very large formats. We have also been on painting trips so that we can paint in the footsteps of great artists, a source of inspiration. Turner in Snowdonia and in Yorkshire; Constable,  Gainsborough and Alfred Munnings in Suffolk; Monet, Eugène Boudin, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Yves Brayer, Félix Vallotton and Gustave Courbet in different regions of France. Closer to home, we have spent days searching for the spots where artists such as Ferdinand Hodler, Koller, Cuno Amiet, Corot, Auguste Baud-Bovey, Diday or Calame may have painted. Finding yourself in such places with an easel and canvas, there is a kind of communion with the artist while you express yourself in a more contemporary way. Everywhere we go, our dogs accompany us too, whether we are travelling mainly to paint or to visit family.

My website is intended as a record of my work as a landscape artist, a sort of catalogue raisonné. I have separated the paintings into major categories, such as the Swiss mountains. Within each category are further divisions, such as the Bernese Oberland, containing a portfolio of my paintings of each subject. Clicking on an image will give a clearer image with a description of the painting - title, canvas size. My site is not intended as a shop window, so I have not given prices or even indicated which paintings are available. On the menu above you will also be able to click onto information about my exhibitions, you will find some of the newspaper articles about our work and finally there is an album of photographs from painting sessions and vernissages. If my work interests you, please contact me by e-mail (Contact) or come along to one of our exhibitions. You will find a warm welcome!

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