The first time I went to the lovely Ochre toned village of Roussillon I was captivated by the paintings I saw in a gallery there by the artist, Francoise Valenti. They are full of vibrant color: ochre buildings with stretches of lavender in the foreground, or scarlet poppies in a field. I bought one of her posters and have it framed and hanging in our house.

Hard to see because of the reflection, but here it is. You can see more at her website:
http://www.francoisevalenti.com/

When my son who is living in Switzerland and his family visited me this summer the four year old, Holden, informed me that he was going to make a lot of money with his art. It turns out that he is very good at art. I don’t think I’m prejudiced. He’s really good with color and comes up with some amazing things.

This is his interpretation of the Brazillian flag. I’m not sure where he saw one.

So, when we took them all to see Roussillon I thought Holden especially would like to see the gallery of Francoise Valenti. I told him she was an artist too. She speaks excellent English and Holden started talking with her telling her he was going to sell his art out of their basement. She lives in the floors above the gallery in Roussillon and has a lovely garden that you can see from the shop. She was very sweet with Holden and told him he should honor his gift and she gave him a postcard that she had in the shop.
I love her work. One of these days, I’d love to buy one of her original paintings of Paris.