Thursday was a long travel day. We took the bus from the villa to near the train station, then walked from there for about 20 minutes down to the Promenade Des Anglais, and just barely caught the bus to St. Paul de Vence in time, an hour ride. St. Paul de Vence is where the Fondation Maeght is. I wrote about this museum in a previous blog. The Fondation was born from the friendship of Aime Maeght, art dealer and gallery owner in Paris, and his wife, Marguerite, with a group of artists that includes Joan Miro, Alexander Calder, Fernand Leger, Georges Braque, Alberto Giacometti and Marc Chagall. The grounds exhibit sculptures and mosaics and they have a permanent collection containing works from these artists and more. But at this time there is a special exhibit that has taken over the museum, curated by Bernard-Henri Levy, a well-know French philosopher. This exhibit was extremely challenging for all of us because of its basis in philosophy, but we all found it rich and fascinating and curious.

Here is the opening wall text to the exhibit: “Art carries its banishment from the Platonic city like an original sin. Since the time of Plato and the myth of the cave, artists have been forced to work not with Being but with its shadow or reflection. How did they adapt to that curse? What did they make of it? What sorts of works did they produce? And to express what? From Ancient Greece to Andy Warhol and our contemporaries, what has been the artist’s response to the gauntlet thrown down by the first philosopher?”

As you can see, it is challenging. Later that evening I told them about my experience with having Pierre write about my work and include so much philosophy in his response to what I had created – I told this story in a previous blog. That evening back at the villa we had a lively and extensive conversation about all that plus lots more. Wish I could reproduce it here, but I can’t.

After viewing the exhibit for two hours, we went to the cafe on the grounds and had a wonderful lunch. Then, while we had coffee, we did an art session. Sorry, no photos of that one. Afterwards, we took another bus to the Matisse Chapel in Vence. As when I went there alone, no photos because they don’t allow them. Both the chapel and the museum containing Matisse’s sketches and models and the priests robes he designed had an inspirational effect on the workshop students and, along with the Matisse Museum from the day before, became our basis for several experimental work sessions on Friday.

The bus ride home from Vence was over an hour, then we took the bus back to the villa which is, as you know, half an hour. Once home, we had an art session, then a food session. I am not at all doing justice to this day…or any of the other days. Its better when I can write immediately at the end of a day or the next morning. Oh well, you get the flavor.

I am writing this on Saturday, Oct. 26, at almost 5 p.m. and am hoping to get Friday’s blog post done, too. Then I will be caught up. I most likely will not post much over the next several days. Carl and I will be driving around Provence with Gerry and Karen and we, at this moment, have no plans and no reservations. I don’t know if I will have internet access, and I would bet money that I will have no time. So, if you don’t see any posts, don’t worry, I am alive and well and traveling in France.