L’Aube dans la Garrigue. ©John O’Grady, 2014
Oil on Panel, 6″x 6″
Not For Sale
On the plateau of Clansayes in the south of the department of La Drôme, the Mediterranean scrub is dense with small oak trees, boxwood and wild aromatic plants like lavender, thyme and rosemary. This is called “La Garrigue” in French. The plateau is criss-crossed with narrow dusty ancient roads and paths used by hunters and farmers and it is easy to get lost if you are not local as landmarks are hard to find.
It is also so very still. You can hear the occasional bird call and the sound of the wind in the vegetation when it gets up.
The muted violets, blues and pinks convey this feeling of solitude when the sun rises. This is “Dawn in the Garrigue”.
I hope you enjoy it. I’d love to read what you think.
Beautiful, I love the path and how it leads the eye right into the painting, as usual your palette is full of depth and wonderful colours!
Best Wishes,
Dawn
Thank you Dawn, that is very kind of you to say so.
regards John
A very beautiful work, John – you’re on quite a roll, exhilarating to watch. I too like the colors, esp. the olive or army green in the lower left corner. Not that I love that hue, but for how it affects the blues and burgundies of the land and water. Very nice.
Much appreciated Steven. I am particularly happy with the colour arrangement in this piece.
I love the diffuse light and the indistinctiveness of the trees, and the silvery path winding into the distance. Beautiful colors, and rather impressionistic. It reminds me of the Irish expression “a soft day.” Just lovely. Quiet but hopeful, in the way that dawn always is.
Thank you very much Josephine, I like your comment, yes I think dawn is always hopeful particularly on a soft day
I do enjoy it !
Myself living between “garriges” and winyards, in the beautiful area of Languedoc at the bottom of the famous “Pic Saint-Loup” !
I share your emotions and would love to be able as you are to paint so subtibly what is offered to our eyes….
Thank you Dominique for your comment
I know Pic Saint-Loup a little bit, it is very beautiful where you live and I know the grapes/wine Piquepoul a little bit too 🙂
Wonderful light
Thanks Michael
Although it is entirely different to ‘After the Rain’ the tight composition reminded me of it somehow. Instead of the downward flow of water, this delightful silvery path take my eye up to the horizon and around the little bend to where?
It is very gentle just like the dawn when it unfolds; very beautiful John.
Thank you Chris,
It is a piece I am very happy with, particularly the mood that the colours evoke, trying to paint that special air/light of dawn.
Yes — you have succeeded in “painting the air” here. It is palpable. Masterful.
That’s really kind of you to say so Josephine