How I met Suzy and Sophie

You may remember (if you saw my first backblip from last Saturday), where I speak about meeting Suzy climbing a fairly steep slope back from the Chavonnes Lake! We laughed together as we were both a bit out of puff and made little stops to chat! Her husband and friends had surged on ahead and so had my daughter! Suzy told me that she lived in Megève in France with her French husband, but she was American from New York! She was in Villars for the opening night of her art exhibition and she invited my daughter and me to go if we felt like it!

We went of course! There were a maximum of rather large paintings in a flamboyant style, but there were four smaller paintings that I really liked, three were of vineyards and then I saw the one I would buy that I have framed in the thumbnail above! There was 10% off, but even then, I hadn't expected to be purchasing art on our little mountain getaway! This picture has been painted in acrylics from the lakeside town of Montreux, It shows the beautiful blues and turquoise of the water with the purple and pink mountains at sunset.This mountain range is called the Grammont, in the Chablais Alps. I know it well as I did some hiking there in my energetic youth!

My daughter was upstairs buying a stunning print by artist Sophie Scott (who is actually Welsh, but lives in Gryon, near Villars)! It's called 'The Fire Tree'. I saw another one by Sophie called 'Spring over Lac Léman. I bought that one too! Isn't it delicately painted? Sophie was also showing her art in the same place.

Here are the three paintings, with the flyer about the first night of the Villars art exhibition.

I certainly don't usually go round buying art for myself, but I fortunately had a little nest egg of savings for a stay in a place I love, for my birthday this year - and I didn't go! So now I have something more lasting that I can look at with pleasure all the year round.

It was so lovely to meet both these artists. Down to earth Suzy and rather ethereal Sophie painting delicate, almost dreamy scenes.