John O'Grady Art - The Orchard in Les Baronnies | One spring landscape painting one evening in an orchard in Provence
The Orchard in Les Baronnies, ©John O’Grady
19.6″ x 19.6″ x 1.25″, oil on deep edge wooden panel, ready to hang.

NFS (Not for Sale)

Ancient little villages are scattered here and there in ‘Les Baronnies’. Its valleys shelter fruit orchards, olive groves and lavender fields.

One evening, the sun was dropping and I was driving through the area when, in an orchard, I noticed someone appearing and disappearing between the fruit trees growing on an incline.

I carried on but the image of that fugitive figure moving in and out of sight stayed with me. An enigma. A mystery…

A few days ago when I started this painting, her image vividly came back.

The person I saw was dressed in dark colours but the painting seemed to call out for white to work with the flat saturated colours surrounding it.

When I made her rough outline, I wanted something that would echo the curves of the slender tree trunk.

I tried placing her in several areas of the painting but it took me a while to decide where would be best. And then, slightly secreted by the trees felt right.

The rich flat colours and the tall vertical tree trunks dwarf the distant lone figure.

The effect is pleasingly disorientating, don’t you think?