The paintings from my 3 month residency in Savoie, France function as both note taking on and love letter to the Haut-Grésivaudan valley. Situated between Grenoble and Albertville, this glacier carved valley was cultivated by Celtic tribes. The valley flourished greatly after the Romans laid claim to it around the 1st century AD. In fact, grape varietals established as long ago as the 1st century BC are still a commonplace crop. Nutrient rich waters from the Alps flow into the Isère river as it shimmers milky blue down the valley. Referred to as ‘the beautiful garden of France’, through the millennia this productive land has traded hands repeatedly. Some peaceful, many not, these transitions are memorialized around the valley by the numerous chateaux and fortifications built to protect the various sources of power.
Yet it is not the monuments and remembrances of war that captivated me. It is the landscape; the imaginings of the changes time has wrought upon it that plays out again and again in the paintings. There is no space here that is not influenced by the hand of man. One cannot look at the land without seeing human presence - from it, upon it and finally returned to the earth. Rather than the relics of the wars fought, I began to see the land itself as commemorative of the valley’s people. The word terroir - the mix of soil, sun and moisture that define a place and a person’s immemorial connection to it - holds a deeper meaning to me now. The agrarian roots of the nation are embraced here.
This series of 8 painting reflects specific days looking up valley, admiring the glacial carved valley and the silhouette of Mt. Blanc.
The paintings from my 3 month residency in Savoie, France function as both note taking on and love letter to the Haut-Grésivaudan valley. Situated between Grenoble and Albertville, this glacier carved valley was cultivated by Celtic tribes. The valley flourished greatly after the Romans laid claim to it around the 1st century AD. In fact, grape varietals established as long ago as the 1st century BC are still a commonplace crop. Nutrient rich waters from the Alps flow into the Isère river as it shimmers milky blue down the valley. Referred to as ‘the beautiful garden of France’, through the millennia this productive land has traded hands repeatedly. Some peaceful, many not, these transitions are memorialized around the valley by the numerous chateaux and fortifications built to protect the various sources of power.
Yet it is not the monuments and remembrances of war that captivated me. It is the landscape; the imaginings of the changes time has wrought upon it that plays out again and again in the paintings. There is no space here that is not influenced by the hand of man. One cannot look at the land without seeing human presence - from it, upon it and finally returned to the earth. Rather than the relics of the wars fought, I began to see the land itself as commemorative of the valley’s people. The word terroir - the mix of soil, sun and moisture that define a place and a person’s immemorial connection to it - holds a deeper meaning to me now. The agrarian roots of the nation are embraced here.
This series of 8 painting reflects specific days looking up valley, admiring the glacial carved valley and the silhouette of Mt. Blanc.