Dreaming of France -- French Inspiration

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

Earlier this summer, I posted some pictures that my friend Leah took while she traveled in the south of France.
Leah is an artist and takes wonderful pictures. Then, inspired by the pictures, she paints even more compelling paintings.
This month at our local coffee shop, Leah's paintings are on display. I went in earlier today to take some pictures because my daughter Grace is too sick to go look at them. I knew she'd be inspired by Leah's artwork.
I took this picture at a strange angle because there was a man sitting at the table Skyping. I tried not to be intrusive, but I love this picture of a tree-lined road on the way to St. Remy de Provence.

This next painting was inspired by both Van Gogh's painting of Les Iris, and a vase of purple flowers in a cafe in St. Remy de Provence where Leah had lunch.

Inspired by Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles, Leah painted the bedroom her son slept in while they visited Arles. Yes, she meant it to be a humorous take, but I love the colors.

There were other lovely paintings by Leah, and I can't include them all, but I will include a painting of a mosaic that she saw in Morocco, where they traveled after France and Spain. This painting looks 3-D, as if I could run my finger over the individual tiles. Again, I took it at an angle so the matting looks askew, but that's just my picture, not Leah's framing.

Hope you enjoy looking at Leah's paintings. I've included her Facebook page and her Etsy shop too in case you are interested in more art by Leah.
Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. I can't wait to see what everyone else is posting. Please visit each other's blogs.

Talent in the Eye of the Beholder

Talent is an amorphous thing. What I see as talent others may not, and vice versa.
We started talking about art and talent at work the other day. The Writing Center where I tutor college students is located in the library. Along one wall of the library, on the walk toward the bathroom, a student artist currently displays her paintings. And frankly, most of them are bad.

I don't think the student is young, since many of the paintings have dates on them from the early 2000s.

"Maybe if she painted only landscapes," I suggested to the other teachers in the Writing Center.

"No," my friend Vivian said shaking her head. "Someone just  needs to take her brush away."
We all laughed, but it's true. Someone, somewhere encouraged this person to keep painting and try to make a career of painting.
"It's just a shame someone wasn't honest with her to begin with," Vivian said.
But talent is like that. Someone thought she was good at painting and now that's what she is.
The dogs in the one below especially bother me.

What do you think? Would you be honest with your friend, child, sibling if he/she didn't have talent in the art, music, writing, photography field?