Picnic in Bordeaux

After returning from a trip to France and Spain and looking at my many photos and sketches (not so many sketches -- I can relate to the cave painters 19,000 years ago who went deep into caves to find a quiet place to draw!), I was interested in the image of a picnic we had in Bordeaux.

After the painting workshop I attended in March with Colin Page, I had been thinking about tackling complicated still life set ups like those we did in that workshop.  The picnic we had reminded me of that kind of composition -- we had peaches, pate, cheese en croute, wine, bread, saucisson, frais du bois, and bright red plates.  We used the paper bags from our purchases to cover the dark wood picnic table.  And somehow, the casual arrangement of a picnic for 4 spread those items in a pretty pleasing arrangement.