Boz’Art en Baz’Art Art Symposium, Vichy, France

I was invited by Jérôme Joannet, Mayor of Bellarrive sur Allier in Vichy, France and Delphine Manet, Director of Boz’Art en Baz’Art (http://www.bozartenbazart.com) to represent Grenada at the Boz’Art en Baz’Art Art Symposium, Vichy, France. The theme is ‘Water – Life’s ARTery’.

I left Grenada on April 26 for London, and from there took the overnight Megabus to Paris. From Paris we took the train from Paris-Bercy to Vichy, arriving lunchtime Friday. What an adventure. I am very happy to be the guest of the president of the association ‘Art et Culture’ and secretary of Boz’Art en Baz’Art, Madame Simone Nesson and her daughter, artist Pascale Nesson. Their house is a five minute walk from the artists’ studios at Chateau du Bost, on Rue Beausejour.

We are 14 artists from France, the UK, Canada, Haiti, Russia, Romania and Hungary at the. I am very happy to share my studio space with Haitian artists Garry Laurent and Patrick Cauvin of Promart Haiti. Cauvin is also the Honorary Consul for Haiti to Paris.

We have many long days at the studio in the chateau, from 930 am until late, and going through pots and pots of coffee. The final exhibition is on 13 May at the Chateau. On most days we take our meals at the Maison de Artists, the artists’ house, which is owned by the mayor and the area, for housing artists visiting the town. Tuesday last week, we lunched at the house of famed artist Marie Paule Benoit-Basset. We have also taken sponsored meals at the Pole University, and Le Bonne Heure cafeteria, as well as at several homes in the area. Our international artist group has been very well taken care of. The weather in Vichy is cool to freezing… most days I wear a heavy coat!

Last Thursday, we had a day out tour of Clermont-Ferrand, the main city of the Auvergne region. We visited the Museum of Fine Arts, and I got my photo with Van Gogh, part of a temporary exhibition of self-portraits of famous artists usually shown at the Museum d’Orsay in Paris. We also visited the black cathedral, built from black stone, and it is the only one of its kind in France. Later we took a picnic on a battlefield where the early French (the Gallic people) were victorious over the Romans!

Work continues every day in the studios.