I found this blue door while strolling through a tiny village called Quarante in Languedoc, in southwest France. I was on vacation with my parents. Those 12 days in France continue to be some of the best days I’ve ever spent on vacation, and I love being reminded of it by this painting.
It was an attempt to paint more loosely – always a challenge to pull off for those of us who like to control our brushes! I wasn’t sure I was happy with the resulting painting, so I didn’t frame or show it publicly.
Illa Newman – a loose relation – saw a tiny little photo of it in my journal at my first Marin Open Studios in May 2007. She asked about it. I later took it to her and now, not only is it hers, but in inspired her to paint her front door blue! This painting evokes for her, her many visits to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico.
Others have seen it as Italy, Portugal, Spain and even Tunisia!
April 2005 – 22″x15″ – Watercolor on paper
More from the Places Gallery
Bella Serata
Joe and I stayed in the room with this window on two trips to Pomino in Tuscany: 2017, my dad’s last trip to Italy, and in 2022. A few weeks after we came home in 2017, Pop and I were sitting at their kitchen table. “Let me ask you something, have you left Pomino?”...
Home
Several years before painting this, I was hiking when the memory surfaced: I needed to paint that photo of myself—nearly 35, lying on a wall at my mother’s cousin Jacinta’s house in Croatia. No one remembers who took it, and I don’t remember lying down like that....
Lunch on the Terrace
I had lunch with my parents on the back terrace in the place we stayed in Quarante, in Langedoc in France - the same village where Blue Door is. I love the colors in the salad and wine and was intrigued to paint the reflections and shadows in the glasses and plates....
Lunch at La Valencia
In June 2009, I showed my work at the La Jolla Festival of the Arts for the first time. The festival organizers (the Torrey Pines Kiwanis) seemed to like my work. A few months later, they invited me to submit a concept for the 2010 festival poster. I was thrilled! To...