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"Menton Landscape"

In December 1883 Monet and Renoir traveled along the Mediterranean coast from Marseille to Genoa.

The trip was Renoir’s first to the region where he would settle at the end of his life.

Smitten by its beauty, he wrote to his patron Paul Berard, "alas our poor palette can’t match up to it.”

Nevertheless, with brilliant color and feathery brushstrokes, this picture sets out to capture the place,

inviting the viewer into a windswept grove on bluffs overlooking the sea.

I decided in January of 2018, that I wanted to do a study of the painting.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get to Boston to see the original, so I referenced my art books, and online photos.

I'm sure that my copy is far off from the original, but it was an interesting experiment.

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Above - I was most interested in trying to reproduce the layers of paint using wet-into-wet,

wet over dry, mixing colors on the canvas, scraping, and glazing.

I'm happy with the textures, but woefully lacking in the application.

I couldn't possibly match Renoir's brushstrokes, but I at least tried to vary my strokes.

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Above - Painting the trees gave me the most trouble. Each clump of leaves needed

to be a different shape and texture, without changes in light and dark, or color.

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Above - In this detail, I imagined various grasses in a marshlike setting.

Below - In this detail, the complementary colors of orange/blue, and red/green are evident.

Each are equally matched.

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Below - The final painting. I'm quite happy that I decided to make a study (as opposed to a "copy")

of Renoir's "Landscape on the Coast, near Menton".

I hope to utilize some of the new techniques I used in future paintings.

Above left, high resolution                 Above right, low resolution