The painting was made in Provence in January. Lavender has been harvested already and the trees lost all their leaves. I painted outside and it wasn’t that easy. Wind, occasional rain and cold didn’t really made it easy. I wonder how and if the impressionist worked in the fields. 
According to Bruce Yardley they all had their studios and made most paintings there. Perhaps van Gogh was the only exemption simply because he had no money to afford even a permanent residence.
Provence is nice during all seasons but in the summer there are more colours to paint. I made a few sketches of the fields with aquarelle paint but also of some of the villages with their small streets and picturesque houses during a summer holiday.
In a small village I found a huge and unexpected bookshop that I had to sketch but also I bought a comic book about petanque.
But obviously the lavendel fields are the biggest attraction. So I made a few aquarelles of the beautiful things I saw during different visits.
On a morning just outside our hotel I saw this deer staring at me. I made a picture and later on during the day I made this memory into a small oil painting.
