Les Artistes

Erin Hill

This is my Art and Travel Journal ( or Journey ). Join me as I explore the ups and downs of creating & teaching Art. You will see the process and hear how my paintings, drawings and sketches come to life. I am a professional Artist who after leaving the advertising industry in 1986, went to The Julian Ashton Art School and completed a 4 year diploma in Fine Arts. I had my own Art Gallery for 10 years, painting and selling watercolours of the local area and further afield. Also showing were my French Italian and Greek Isles works. My former Art School is now the North Shore School of Art. After much interest in whether I teach, I have ‘The Art of Sketching’ art classes twice a week based in the Studio. Since then I’ve been exhibiting and selling regularly with commissioned and Gallery works, and now have my painting studio in Manly. This is ErinHill Studio which is also a Gallery and where ‘The Art of Sketching’ art classes are based. My work has mainly been watercolour though after recent travels in Italy, I am now using acrylic, which adds another dimension to my work. You can view Watercolours, Sketches, Acrylic and Decorative acrylics. These days I am free to travel and paint on location more. I have a client who has me paint in their French village for them. Each year we produce a Christmas/ New year card for all the clients who visit their stone cottages. I will be back in South of France in September 2012, to paint and to take a group of artists on my ‘Sketching Food & Wine of the Minervois’. Details are in the Menu Bar above, and you are invited to contact me to enquire about places. Contact me soon as it’s a small group. I like to be in contact with other artists, With a group of painting friends, we regularly travel and explore new techniques and ideas, in Greece, France and Italy. We then keep in touch and continue our dialogue when back in our own studios. I value enormously the global connection one has by keeping a journal such as this. You are suddenly talking with other like-minded people, and it’s incredibly inspiring to hear about their art journeys. I am much more focussed because of it. I am a member of the Sydney Sketch Club, and International SketchCrawl, and this keeps me in touch with other local artists as well. It fascinates me to see how totally differently we each approach the same subject. Many of these sketches are available in the Studio, others stay in my sketch book as inspiration. I also belong to Survive France Network to be in touch with the Trausse Minervois region and keep up with what’s happening in the art world there, Original paintings are for sale so please feel free to ask about sketches or paintings you see here. If you’d like to email me, erin@erinhill.com.au http://www.erinhill.com.au/  http://erinhillmyblog.com/  ErinHillArt.

Travel Journal …….ErinHill……. The French Escapade Working on 'Soft light of Chelieu'' Glenys at Jardin Pinaud Niki discussing Fauvism It was a very different week from Italy, but exhilarating. Jackie takes us to a huge old Gite – large oldmansion with heaps of bedrooms, enormous dining room, squeaky stairs and a family dog – Coqin- who found the painting spot pictured above for me! He really wanted me to go there. Every other day we would take off for some gorgeous location and every other, we could paint in and around the local village. This was where we went to Chantal’s garden, and where Glenys did an excellent piece – again. In fact the locals are so friendly now and offering their own gardens or directions to Chateau Virieu, or drinks etc. In the evening we liked to show some of the work done that day, and you can see Niki with her fauve style oil pastels, with ‘wee little twig’ lines learned from Connie of Scotland. Dinner was 4 courses prepared by a local chef who cooked for the Vuitton family for several years- so an after dinner walk straight up the hill, with Coqin leading was an essential for some of us. Our home in Chelieu After painting ‘The Crooked House’ I had a delicious salad at Hotel Pascal and decided to paint the view there. Marianne the owner was so intrigued that she came to have a look and then wanted to buy it, so I gave in and agreed. They are now the proud owners of one of my new style paintings. And there is our home. What a great spot. Views over the farms, birds singing, chooks chooking, irises irising and all the classic rural France sights and sounds. AAAaaah. You can bring your own group of 8 painters as we did, or an art teacher can bring a group of 7. We are looking at doing Provence with Jackie in a couple of years. Absolutely had a ball and will benefit from this for years. ©ErinHill2010 the clocktower a little along from the toll houses, and not get burnt to a frazzle. Somehow about 4 pm everyone ended up in the cafe overlooking the view below and ordering crisp vin blanc or gelato. Such a rewarding day. Your head just spins with all the history in these little towns. You can see it and feel it. ©ErinHill2010 ▶ View 2 Comments New softer Watercolours, Original Watercolour, Plein Aire in French Jardin Chantal’s Jardin in Virieu In Gorgeous places to stay, Painting in France, Plein air painting on May 30, 2010 at 8:10 pm Jardin & Cat La Maison Pinaud On this day we were invited to paint in the garden of Mme and M Pinaud. She speaks some English so was telling us she was disappointed that the blooms were not out. We’ve had snow here until quite recently she explained, so everything is still to flower. For us it was fine. The settings were so lovely with mature trees setting it off. I wanted an intimate subject after all the architecture I seemed to be doing lately, so the old barn with lilac irises next to the rust red ones suited me. I had shade under the cherry trees ( not quite ready for me to pig out on) and Paloma the white fluffy cat was there at my feet. I felt I was in a nursery rhyme. Today I felt like a green layer followed by a pink. Then sponged away where the highlights might be. The charcoal pencil sketch took place while the paper dried in the sun. Lunch was our favourite spread of baguette, selected cheese and pate, fruit and drinks. Wine for those who feel it enhances their painting. We sat out in the open together soaking in the atmosphere and the rooftops and spires in view. This is the life. The second painting is a detail of the old 17th century home, towards one of the doors and the comings and goings around it. This time a pink layer followed by green. Again Paloma keeps a yellow eye on things. That is M Pinaud in his green overalls wheelbarrowing things around. Chantal is in the doorway. M Pinaud is also a photographer who decided we were worthy subjects for his impressive camera, and with our minds elsewhere no doubt some candid expressions. The group shot he set up is off to the local newspaper as it’s big news for such a tiny town to have international painters working round and about. At 6pm on the dot we walked 2 doors away to the glorious home and museum of Louis Fournier, to taste his walnut wine. The girls decided it was pretty nice and similar to a fruity but dry sherry. He is a historian not only of his own family here, but of Jongkind, a painter who lived and painted in Virieu at the start of the Impressionist movement. He signed a copy of his book ‘Virieu en Dauphine’ a history of the region. I liked it because of the Virieu paintings by both Jongkind and Pierre Giacomino. We realised how much good comes from doing what we do – visiting a little village painting what we feel and sharing with the locals. Louis is very enthusiastic about the history and local art life and to encourage visitors from far and wide to visit Virieu. If Jackie hadn’t chosen the town for our base, none of this would have happened. Now there is a real focus for the locals and they are so excited. Who would have thought. ©ErinHill2010.