A Painting Holiday in the Dordogne

January 10, 2008

paintPainting France is a painting and drawing holiday in the beautiful Dordogne, where we provide friendly expert guidance for students of all abilities. We have excellent accommodation and facilities. Throughout the course you will dine in style with fine French cuisine and regional wines, our Painting Holidays in the Dordogne are excellent value even with the £ to € exchange rate.

Imagine being shown the professional painting techniques that will, in just a few hours move your works of art up to a new higher level. If you are just starting we will encourage you and give you an artistic confidence that will help you get more enjoyment from this fantastic pursuit.

You will not need to bring any artists equipment with you on your painting holiday in the Dordogne as we have supplies of all the basic materials, which are included in your painting package. If you are already a committed artist and prefer a particular type of brush, paint or a special brand of water-colour paper, feel free to bring them with you. All tuition is in English on your Painting Holiday in the Dordogne.

We are situated in the Dordogne South West France department 24 and is run from ‘Franquettes ‘ which is the home and art studio of English painter Richard Harby and his wife Sally.

Franquettes is near the village of Nabirat in the beautiful Dordogne region of France. Nabirat is famous for its annual strawberry fair (Fete de Fraises) where the year’s production of strawberries is celebrated in the creation of a giant strawberry tart which is displayed in the village square. The medieval town of Domme is just a 10 minute drive away and has been one of our painting locations on previous courses. From its elevated position Domme has one of France’s most spectacular views over the river Dordogne giving an almost aerial view of the fantastic countryside below. A trip to Sarlat, the historic market town of the area is a must with is quaint alleys and cobbled streets. Busy shops, art galleries and restaurants abound and there is usually a variety of entertaining street performers. We are only 10 minutes from the Dordogne river canoe hire and the boating lake at Grolejac.

For more info please visit : www.painting-france.co.uk

 

Written by admin · Filed Under Activities, Art & Literature 

Race to save moulding Lascaux cave paintings

January 2, 2008

By John Lichfield in Paris

 

The French government is taking emergency action to rescue the world’s most celebrated prehistoric cave paintings from a second fungal invasion in seven years.

Each day until 8 January, experts are treating the caverns at Lascaux in the Dordogne – nicknamed the Sistine Chapel of pre-history – with a fungicide to try to check a gradual spread of spots of grey and black mould. The caves will then be closed to all but essential visitors for three months.

An air conditioning system, installed just before a similar fungal attack seven years ago, is to be replaced. Some scientists believe the introduction of the machinery was misconceived and may be partially responsible for the fungal invasions.

Other experts blame global warming for increasing the temperature in the caves. Others point to an increased level of human activity in the caverns as part of an ambitious attempt to create an exact computerised record in three dimensions of the 17,000-year-old paintings of bison, wild cattle, deer and other animals.

Whatever the explanation, the French government has decided to take no risks and to accept the advice of a committee of experts which met at Lascaux, in south-western France, just before Christmas. The fungicide will be sprayed on the stricken areas of the cave walls. The three-dimensional survey will be halted. The air-conditioning unit will be replaced.

No public visits to Lascaux have been allowed since 1963 but almost all visits by scientists and historians will be banned for at least three months.

Officials from the French government’s department of historic monuments and experts from all over the world have been quarrelling for years over the best way to preserve the paintings. Last September, the “International Committee for the Conservation of Lascaux”, infuriated Paris by writing a letter to the UN cultural body, Unesco, asking for the caves to be included in the official list of world heritage sites “in peril”.

The French government has minimised the scale of the new fungal attack. Officials say that the invasion is much smaller than the blankets of white fungus which spread over the walls of the caverns, and some of the painting, in 2001 and 2002. On this occasion, only small areas of pre-historic drawings have been touched and none has been damaged. Scientists fear, however, that the second attack, so soon after the first, is a warning that the micro-climate in the caverns has been permanently altered in ways which may be difficult to reverse.

The American scientist Laurence Léauté- Beasley, president of the international Lascaux committee, has called for the management of the caves to be taken out of the hands of the French government and entrusted to a “higher scientific body”. She accuses French authorities of “improvisation” and “lack of scientific thoroughness”.

The Lascaux paintings were discovered by four teenagers in September 1940. The 600 images of bison, horses, wild cattle and ibexes, some at rest, some running or jumping, are regarded as among the finest cave paintings in the world. It is thought that they were painted between 15,000 and 17,000 years ago by hunter-gathering people who crushed minerals to create drawings in red, ochre, brown and black.

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