Inspiration from a Church and a Château

Week 40's colours are Aqua, Blush, Khaki & Prussian Blue

After a relaxing break in the Dordogne and Lot regions of France we are heading home. This is famous truffle country, the Perigord Noir, and our two Lagotti dogs have really enjoyed sniffing about on our many walks around the woodlands where we observed over the last weeks how the seasons shifting.

Gourdon is a medieval town close by to where Perigord Retreats are hosted, we visited the Église Saint-Pierre de Gourdon on one of our retreat outings, and I went back to have another look last week. This beautiful church was built in Gothic style between 1304 and 1509 on the foundations of an even older Romanesque church ruined at the end of the 13th century.

The number of medieval villages, castles and churches in the area is quite remarkable. The name Gourdon is from the Visigoth word gord (meaning crow), maybe alluding to earlier inhabitants of the hill where the church now stands. There are even signs of prehistoric man here too with household objects found in a cave close to the church dating from the Palaeolithic period, around 30,000 years ago.

I was struck by the church’s windows, dating from a time before the more elaborate biblical scenes in stained glass were created for churches and cathedrals. These window reminded me of quilts, their geometric patterns and unusual colour combinations and some irregular features. The designs appear to look rather contemporary, with an art deco feel. Can you believe they’re creations from the 14th century? We saw similar designs in the windows of the church in Château de Beynac. This week’s coloricombo colours are chosen from one of Saint-Pierre’s stained glass windows.

Read more about the church here and Gourdon here. I’ve included a video about Gourdon which has some aerial shots of the church and it’s surrounds here.

Inspiration from Windows and Floors

I mentioned that we visited Château de Beynac where I noticed the pebbled floors with their organic patterns. I love the way they are arranged with the odd differently coloured pebble included. The combination of floor and window inspiration prompted me to create two small watercolour paintings. They measure around 10x10cm (4”square) and I found the process to be quite meditative. I will revisit this process again in a future prompt.

‘Gothic windows in the Église Saint-Pierre de Gourdon’, stained glass, artist unkown, ~14th century

Colour Combination

The colours this week are Aqua, Blush, Khaki & Prussian Blue. 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 create with the prompts. If you’re posting on Instagram, please tag #coloricombo and #estemacleod and join us in the private Facebook group Creative Prompts.

Watercolour Paintings

Explore Abstracts I starts today

This six week long course is offered for a final time from 6 October to 16 November with course access until the end of 2026. You can see all information on the link below. You can also read about the role abstraction plays in my creative process, see the blogpost entitled Why Abstraction changed the way I work

Find out everything you need to know about Explore Abstracts here.

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