Fun in France
Week 22's colours are Baby Pink, Band Aid, Cornflower Blue & Cobalt
A big welcome to all the new subscribers to Coloricombo! Very glad to have you here.
I want to let you know about two new events in the calendar: Floral Fusion, my next online course runs 30 June to 20 July and is now open for registration (currently with an Early Bird discount available) and I’ll be teaching at a retreat in the beautiful Dordogne region of France during September.
More details after this week’s prompt!
Sticking with a French theme, colours are taken from a oil on canvas by the French artist Jacqueline Marval (1866-1932).
Born Marie Josephine Vallet in Quaix-en-Chartreuse, she was originally a schoolteacher. After the death of her six month old child she left her husband and job took up intricate embroidery on waistcoats and gillets, first in Grenoble and then in Paris where she met and fell in love with the painter Jules Flandrin. Through him, she met many of the famous Parisian artists of the time such as Matisse, Van Dongen, Marquet and Picasso and decided to take up painting herself.
Adopting the portmanteau “Marval”, her participation at the Salon des Indépendants in 1901 marked the beginning of her career as an artist when art dealer Ambroise Vollard bought ten of her twelve paintings. These included Odalisque au Guépard (1900), her nude self-portrait which drew the attention of critics.
Although associated with Fauvism, her work stood apart stylistically, emphasising sensuality, elegance and depth rather than pure chromatic experimentation. Marval’s subjects were often women, portrayed not as idealised muses but as complex, real individuals that challenged the male-dominated portrayals of women in art.
At Salon des Indépendants in 1903, Marval showed her most famous work, Les Odalisques, a brothel scene with Marval herself painted repeatedly as a reclining nude.
Although well-connected and a frequent exhibitor, Marval struggled to gain recognition during her lifetime. She lived and worked in Montparnasse, the heart of Bohemian Paris, and maintained strong friendships with prominent artists and intellectuals. After her death, the art world has begun to re-evaluate her contributions to Modernism, especially within the context of women’s roles in early 20th century art.
You can read more about Marvel here and watch a video featuring the Comité Jacqueline Marvel that shows her extensive oeuvre here.
“Plage Rose, la Côte des Basques”, oil on canvas, Jacqueline Marval, c 1923
Colour Combination
The chosen colours this week are Baby Pink, Band Aid, Cornflower Blue & Cobalt. Use the colours along with a contrasting dark and neutral light colour if you wish. Create an artwork in any medium or style.
I love seeing what you’ve create. If you’re posting on Instagram, please tag #coloricombo and #estemacleod and join us in the private Facebook group Creative Prompts.
Floral Fusion open for regisration
Floral Fusion is returning once again from 30 June to 20 July. This three week long course is brim full of projects linked to floral and botanical forms. First launched in Spring 2024, the course consists of three week long modules dedicated to specific techniques and processes in watercolour and mixed media.
Early Bird offer! Registration is now open with a special 20% discount off the £287 listed price so that’s £229 until 15 June. Find out everything you need to know here and remember if you’re a Coloricombo contributing subscriber you get 25% off all courses!
A Retreat in France
What a thrill, even though my plans were to only have one European retreat in 2025 (Portugal in July), something came my way that I could not resist - an opportunity to teach on a nine day art retreat in Perigord, south western France in September.
What a treat, spending the last days of summer in the beautiful countryside with daily trips to medieval villages and other interesting places, I am so excited about this, and would love you to join me. This retreat is a bit longer than usual, so time to indulge in creative playtime with kindred spirits. Read all about it here.
Artwork and video
I created an artwork in blues and pinks and have added a video of the process exclusively for contributing subscribers. This is an idea for playing with colour without concerning yourself with the outcome: it’s about the process.
Using a house shape means that you work within a form that allows you to layer and experiment within this shape.
You may remember the live session a few months back where I used a house as shape and collage to create different outcomes.
