Tourtour, Provence (Var) 1994

Jorgen Faxholm: Oil on canvas,  50x60cm

Holiday Villa, Tourtour Sept. 1994



I remember the holiday as being cold at night, warm in the day - and Tourtour being a touristic village high in the clouds - and populated mainly by German and Dutch tourists, the 'Tabac obligatoire' and a restaurant catering more to Schweinshaxen and Uitsmijters than Bouillabaisse.
In other words: a global village already in 1994.
Once upon a time it was a little French village with typical Provence houses clinging precariously to the edge of nowhere.
Potected by the castle in the centre, the view from Tourtour towards the south remains breathtaking, though. The pirates of the 16th C would have had little more than a snowball's chance in a warm place to arrive unobserved.
Surprisingly, the public 'lavage' was still in use, taking its water from clear and utterly cold mountain streams.

This is the forecourt of the house we had rented and it was a wonderful, albeit very lonely, base for our excursions.
The Oleanders were in full bloom, displaying their blood-red flowers all around the house.
Behind us was a large meadow, that probably had been the feeding ground for a few cows belonging to the ruined farm a little higher up the hill.
This was the topic for another of my Tourtour paintings from 2010.

Jensine racing Bessie Ellen 2007

Jorgen Faxholm: Jensine and Bessie Ellen around Fyn Island 2007
Oil on board, 50x70cm

Jensine and Bessie Ellen
Jensine is Denmark's oldest wooden ship still sailing, a 1-master yacht (Jagt), built in Aalborg by J.W.Riis, 1852. She has since been faithfully restaured by a consortium in Haderslev, Denmark.

Bessie Ellen was designed and built by W.S. Kelly in 1904 in Plymouth to carry cod fish for the Newfoundland trade. In 1907 she was purchased by Captain J.S. Chichester to begin working as a general cargo ship in home waters. She is the last remaining West Country 2-master Trading Ketch (Galease).

Hulst roofscape 1976

Jorgen Faxholm: Hulst, roofs of modern dwellings
contrasting with the medieval Begijnhoof
and poplar trees on the old city rampart.

HULST, The Netherlands.
Oil on board, painted 2010 after a photo taken 1976.
For the art-critic(al) person:
The painting is divided in 3 horizontal layers:
1. Roofs, 2.Medieval building backed by trees and 3. Sky.
There are 2 clear diagonals going through the painting: from the white window in the gable to the right, via the small white structure on a roof to the main tower of the Begijnhof, leading the observer's eye to move back and forth from SE to NW. Next, the roof tiles on the foreground house attracts attention, leading the eye over the chimneys to the little white tower - and finally resting on the horizontal band of poplars.

Contrasting colours (ochre/umber of the bricks and roofs vs the green trees; and the yellow of the tower vs the blue sky).
The slightly muddled blue of the sky reflects a late summer's day with a colour toned down by the
industrial output found along the coast from Antwerp to Calais.
.