mid to late July update

 Pontrieux - most of France must have been painting watercolours!

 La Roche Derrien - and it rained again! New umbrella worked, but it was still tough. 3rd place

 Chatelaudren - misty initally, then cleared. 2nd place - Pierre D came first - good.

Binic (below) - very very hot.  Wish I'd just done a drawing instead.  The world was  painting watercolours again!

Here are the latest paintings.  Between venues Bertie managed to fall into the marais, totally coated in green slime.  He had three sessions in the sea which he loved, and we had the most enormous portion of mussels and chips that you have ever seen at Il Grande.  It was enough for four people and cost 16 euros.  We decided we'de better eat it for the whole of the Dodds family.

Eleven (2nd prize - really pleased with this one)

Guerlesquin

Huelgoat (well I tried something different, but it didn't work!)

La Roche Bernard

St Fiacre, Faoeut (3rd prize)

Beginning of July results of our latest trip - most of the time it rained.  Have now bought a fisherman's umbrella for the forthcoming painting weekends!

return from the Morbihan

Lizio (again very hot) 2nd place

Malestroit

Well we got back on Sunday, after incredibly hot weather. Have to stay here for a week, work to do, like repairs to vehicles etc. Bertie's injections, and I'm waiting for an appointment about my "trigger thumb".

Rochefort en Terre and Guerande

 3rd place for Rochefort en Terre

dull and grey Guerande

here's my chum Daniel Giffard getting first place at Guerande - notice the inclusion of Perry and his yellow socks!

Well we've had some pretty awful weather, but did manage to paint in the damp weather again! Managed a third at Rochefort en Terre, but found Guerande a grey and miserable environment.  I'm sure it's different when the sun shines. Sun is forecast for this weekend.
After the painting weekend, back up to Fort Bloque.  Perry's tried to surf, but with such strong winds, it's been nearly impossible.  Bertie has had a couple of ticks! Silly boy!

travelling photos

bored teenager

checking out what's to eat on the beach

Etel provided tents for the painters, but couldn't control the rain

wow, look at that surf - too big for Perry!

well at least we got our washing dry!

Here are some pics of our travels with the van including Bertie having a good time on the beach and washing hanging from our van.

and the rest

Baden (Port Blanc)

Clisson

Buleon

St Jean Brevelay

Etel

Well here are the rest - second prize at St Jean Brevelay.  At Clisson we went to a vineyard (where we also stayed the night, after a little wine tasting).  Didn't win anything, but on signing on got a bottle of wine.  Everyone else appeared to paint the town - no I didn't get it wrong, I think they stayed in town for the restaurants and the festivities which were going on at the same time.  That evening it started to rain...so the next set of pictures were done in the rain - I kid you not! I hate painting in the rain....the paper just stays damp.  We're now in Fort Bloque (resting and washing), sun is out, wind is strong (so no surfing) and Bertie just loves going down to the sea.

Larmor-Baden

Here's the first of our month's trip to the Morbihan. On 1st June managed a first prize.