PAINTING IN PEZENAS

On Sunday it was up bright and early - lovely morning - hallelujah - and off to Pezenas for another sketch meet up. It's been years since I was in Pezenas and one of the main reasons for not returning sooner was it was a pain in the ass to drive there. Not any more! scoot round the north Beziers bypass and you are on to a wonderful new road and you are there before you know it. The only other thing I remember vividly about the town was the really crappy carpark by the station, a pot holed free for all, well nothing much had changed there. 1 out of 2 ain't so bad.

 

Sketcher (and dog) in action in Place Gambetta.

 

So we assembled, with some difficulty in the Place Gambetta, the centre of the town is neither one thing or another, not a regimented grid of streets nor an snail shell like circulate. You think you could just go around in circles and finally get to the centre, but no, and then to complicate things the 'main street' has a kink in it. So there's lots to discover in the ruelles, trouble is you rarely find it again. Main surprize was that being a Sunday, and not in the tourist season, there were quite a few shops open.
To business: sketching

 

Firstly a warm up montage n the Place.

 

Unfortunately we immediately went our separate ways, some straight to the bar! When I was there later - it was a 'Café des Arts' of course, I sketched again, after traveling over an hour to get to a subject I do like to make the most of it, and don't stop! Unlike the lovely friendly Café des Arts in Beziers this one left something to be desired, and the clientele? maybe an air of affectation about them?

 

 

My favourite time was spent sketching one of the kiosks selling moules and the like. I had no sooner plonked myself down on my stool than a Gentleman and his dog can over to watch. He then got the vendeuse over too, who of course wanted to buy a sketch of her little enterprise - sorry, no, a photo? O.K? We then were joined by a Sapeur from Montpellier, or was it Marsailles and his 2 daughters on scooters, who definitely were getting into my personal space - smile, it's fine. Anyway the Gentleman rabbited away about his love of animals and being a writer (no talent for art) and that he once sent a letter to Brigitte Bardot.....etc, etc, I did shut off at this stage, sketching does take just a wee bit of concentration, and listening and understanding French takes a lot of my concentration, so to do both just wasn't going to happen. He took copious photos and I managed to get one of him too.

 

 

 

At 3 o'clock I'd had enough, but I've fallen for the off season charm of the town. Again my memories are off a lot of tourists and a lot of them very English, in busy, busy back streets. So we must get back to the place on a quiet Sunday. There are so many little scenes tucked away to sketch and lots of arts and crafts shops to peruse, and indeed it is a pleasure to get over there by car. (But also a pleasure to get home to the 'back of beyond')

 

 

The kind of back alley I probably wouldn't have gone down, but fellow sketcher Marc found the most spectacular old, old door and lintels tucked away.

 

 

Really cute pavements too.

 

As usual, if you want to see my sketches go to Artistic Ramblings on Facebook and I'm on Flickr too.