Two lovely artists, Mary Scurlock from Virginia in the States and Åse Pleym Bakken from Norway had an expo of the work they created at La Muse.

First there were aperitifs:

Then the Expo:

July Art Expo

So, we finally got around to having another expo, mainly because of all the help we got from the two great artists that showed, Dave Beazley (you can also check out Dave's blog here) and Andrea Simper! We'll upload video of the expo to Youtube soon and then upload it to the blog.

Andrea and Dave have been here on a residency as barters for six months working on jewelry (Andrea) and painting (Dave).

They both hail from the North Island of New Zealand, from the town of Whangarei. They will be going on to Sri Lanka and London soon, for the next three months.

We're really going to miss them!

"Play Time"

We finally found some time to upload some photos from the art expo we had for two local French artists at the end of June!


Part of the show before people got into the atelier to see it.

The artists, who are married and come from the North of France, live in Miraval Cabardes, about three villages away from Labastide. They are:

Virginie Campagnie (with her little girl):



and, Sebastien Darroman:


Sebastien's the smiling guy in the white pants and black t-shirt - the white and black installation of circles on the easel in the corner, as well as the colorful circular one hanging from the ceiling above the man in the shorts and cap are some of Sebastien's work. They are all made out of hand carved wood and then painted, and people move them about as they pass through the exhibit.

Both Sebastien and Virginnie's work is all centered around the idea/concept of play, hence the title they gave to the expo, "Play Time."

Here's some of Virginnie's smaller sculptures:




Below is one of her acrobatic suspended sculptures. The sculptures are made out of wire and papier mache, then painted.

Below, is Jean-Pierre, in black, from Labastide, the droll waiter from the Sire de Cabaret down the road, who is probably telling those two ladies how much he loves them.

Virginnie's sculpture below was at the entrance of the studio and a lot of people got a great kick out of it.

That's Virginie, below, doing some face painting, with Max our baby-sitter, who's a French horse-whisperer.

Seamus, below, as a tiger!!!




John Clanchy, the Australian writer, pretending to be interested, as John talks about potatoes and the price of cabbage in Venezula.