Andre Derain, Matisse and Collioure (Languedoc)

Matisse - 'Open Window, Collioure'

I am a member of a small plein aire paining group 'art alfresco' which meets once a week and is usually blessed with one memorably good painting day (weather wise and probably work produced wise) per year. Weather is no excuse in the Languedoc but I do miss the joy of painting as part of a group. The most famous painting colony in the Languedoc region would be Collioure and an artist I admire would be Andre Derain who boasted in august 1905, having been there since the spring, he had completed 30 paintings, 20 drawings, 50 sketches, several pastels and plans for a large canvas. Well there's a challenge I won't be taking up, my pitiful attempts at painting in France over the summer are nothing to be proud of, I think the best results were the year I produced 4 paintings and about 10 pastels, that's way, way, way out in front by a long chalk, and I can't even claim quality over quantity either.
Anyway, back to Derain and Collioure, it was here that he stated he had abandoned himself to colour, his brushstrokes became dabs of vivid colours that sing out from white backgrounds, there is a luminous quality to his work - see what I mean in the piece below.
His passion for the naive joy of applying paint calmed down a bit, brushstrokes became longer, strong flat areas of colour, still some wonderful work but personally I find his work became less and less adventurous and that is possibly why he's not up there with the really, really big names in art.

In Collioure he was mates with Matisse of whom he said, 'He is a more amazing chap than I would ever have thought.'. They worked on the same subjects and at this time they basically gave birth to what became the Fauvist movement.
Now although there are several pieces of Derain's work I love, Matisse is in another league, almost but not quite up there with my all time no. 1 Miro.

Collioure I have only visited once, enroute to Barcelona airport, on a stunning day the harbour side was beautiful but with no.1 son and my Father in tow I didn't get much of a chance to explore and appreciate the artistic heritage of the place, maybe sometime soon this situation will be rectified.