Roussillon

Roussillon was one of the most beautiful landscapes France has to offer, its red earth reminded me greatly of Arizona. I based my final landscape painting on this incredible place. Here they used to (and still do) mine pigments from the earth, 80% of which is actually sand that has to be sifted out. The pigment is filtered out and made into bricks, some which are baked to change the hue to a darker red. These bricks are ground into a powder which can be made into paints.
Here is a sample of the landscape and my painting.

"Storm over Roussillon" 80x100cm, oil on canvas (before crop)

Detail

I recently had the opportunity to visit the studio of Greg Kondos, an amazing California landscape painter. This visit also included a critique, one of the best I have ever had in my life. He was brutal and honest. Here is one suggestion he made: to crop this landscape of Roussillon. I know he thinks he was hard on me taken my age and gender but it was a critique I took to heart and with a grain of salt.

"Storm over Roussillon" (after crop)