Sleightholm Folk Art

Good morning, friends– How are you?

I am happy to report I have a NEW painting to share with you! This one is inspired by my love of lavender and France and called “Genevieve.” On instagram we had a little fun as I asked friends there to help me name her and Genevieve was the top choice– followed distantly by Colette, Amelie, Zelie and Elise. Thanks to everyone who helped me come up with what she would be called!

The original painting is now listed in my ETSY SHOP if you’d like to have her for your own!

As I’ve written about in the past, I have a special affinity for France as I took French language classes through high school and a bit of college (mais oui!) These days I enjoy dabbling in rustic French dishes, reading books set in the French countryside (I especially enjoy reading the books by Susan Herrman Loomis, which combine French food and lifestyle!) and listing to 1960s French girl pop music. I never did get to France like I always thought I would– but would be happy to visit New Orleans or Quebec!

Recently I was going through some of my old Victoria Magazines (I have a massive collection of old Victoria and Country Living Magazines…they are my treasures– either given to me by my mom, found at the antique mall or estate sales or— I’m not ashamed to admit– bought as full lots from eBay!) They are such fantastic sources of inspiration, and I enjoy using them to find interesting scenes in which to set my characters I paint.

I was immediately intrigued by the cover of this Victoria Magazine from 2013 about “The Charm of French Style”, especially since I love lavender so much and it is so fun to paint. I thought I’d give it a go to paint my first France inspired landscape!

This spread in particular was a big source of inspiration, as I used the church in the photo on the left in the painting, and I also used the look of the sloping hillside to show layers of landscape behind Genevieve. I at first was going to make the closest landscape more rustic like the landscape in the photo, but I ended up just making it ALL covered in lavender, as I thought it would be more striking (more is more when it comes to lavender, right?!) I also added taller trees to ‘frame’ the figure and to connect the top and the bottom of the painting together in a more eye-pleasing way.

Of course, my french girl is very old fashioned, and I gave her a pretty, lacy and intricate shirtwaist to wear as well as a dark purple skirt to make her compliment the lavender fields. She is also a raven haired beauty with a bit of a Gibson Girl hairstyle, which I like.

This painting was lots of fun to paint and I enjoyed giving my art a bit of French flair! I’d love to make some more art inspired by France, but at the moment I feel like I need to turn my attention to autumn art— and even Christmas art! As those are my big seasons in my etsy shop, and will be here before we know it!

Thanks so much for your visit today, I hope you are doing well! A demain!~

And of course–

Take Joy!
H