Report from St.-Aulaye, France

We are back from a truly wonderful two week trip to the Dordogne and Lot Valleys in France. The highlight of the trip came early on when John and I went to St. Aulaye to meet my new friend “Pastel Philippe”! Last year he invited me to participate in their international show of pastels. I sent three paintings and sold one and decided that this is the international show that I would like to continue participating in, primarily because Philippe is such a wonderful person to work with. He is also a truly great painter, particularly of cats! You can see his picture above him. He is the local pharmacist in a small, lovely town in the northern part of the Perigord region of France. From the outside, the Musee du Pastel is a garage! But once inside, one sees truly magnificent paintings from all over the world, including the Spanish painter Romero, whose work (I think) is featured in the poster. What is amazing is that the town of St. Aulaye has purchased the paintings in the Musee. Such dedication to art is rarely seen in this country, sorry to say. In addition to the tour of the Musee, they took us out to lunch at a lovely restaurant in the country and then we visited a church carved into the stone mountainside. The Pastel en Perigord show is held biennially now (it used to be annual but was too much). It is run completely by Michel and Philippe. They work very hard and their standards are very high. They want to represent the best of pastel in the world! I asked about attendance at the show and Philippe said they come from all over and it draws a huge crowd. I can see that I’m going to have to attend one of these days! It’s held in late July. I plan to assist by suggesting further US artists who have been recognized with IAPS master circle and/or PSA recognition. I was very happy to be able to play a part in such a special endeavor. I have over 700 photos of France! Expect to see a painting or two sometime soon, I hope!!!