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I am still buzzing from a life-changing experience at an artist's residency at Chateau D'Orquevaux in the Champagne region of France. This beautiful Chateau is in an enchanted valley with a tiny stone-walled village (population of 60 or so), a Gothic church, and fields and gardens dotted with cows, sheep, and chickens. It feels like a place where time stands still and the constant clamor of modern life recedes.

My photographer husband, Justin Hjortshoj, and I were joined by nineteen other artists for two weeks of creative time, punctuated by sumptuous meals, walks in the countryside, swimming in the ice-cold pond, drinking wine, and talking about everything under the sun.

Arrival:

Some of us met at the Gare D'Est train station in Paris to catch the train to Chaumont. We were strangers, awkwardly balancing our suitcases and train station coffee and croissant purchases, exhausted from our long plane journeys. Soon, we were to become lifelong friends.

 A two hour train ride ended in Chaumont,  where two young French women greeted us and herded our group into  a pair of minivans. Samantha drove quickly and confidently through the country roads, past wind farms and grazing cattle. As we rounded a corner through the trees, we caught our first glimpse of the Chateau. It sits proudly on a hill and is even more lovely in person than it looks in the photos. We all gasped and started to laugh. “Is this real?! Are we actually staying here?”

After a warm welcome from Beulah van Rensburg, we were sent inside for a champagne and cheese. My new friend,  Lewis Pell said, “I can't believe this is my life! Last week, I was in my mother's attic in Pittsburg; today, I'm living in a French chateau!”  His enthusiasm was infectious.

Kathleen Jennings and I admired the fruit, holding the miniature grapes to the window to capture the color and light inside.

Ziggy Attias, our host, introduced himself and said we should feel at home here.  He asked for only one rule: no phones at the dinner table, so that everyone would be present to engage in conversation. This one rule proved the key to the quick friendships that formed throughout the Chateau.

Maggie Slover turned to me and said, “If you want to stop time, turn off your phone.” She was right- I wanted to slow time and be here for every minute- so I left my phone upstairs most of the time.

Soon, we were shown our rooms and studios. Justin and I were on the top floor in the emerging artists living space. These were charming attic rooms, once servants' quarters, with a lovely common sitting room with substantial louvered windows that opened to create balconies overlooking the church and valley below. Every hour, the church bells rang out over the valley, marking the time.

One floor down was our studio, a huge corner room with two sunny louvered windows. Amid all my delight, I was slightly disappointed that I was sharing my workspace with Justin- I had envisioned working in privacy, but I was grateful we could share this time. It turned out that we were both so absorbed in what we were making that it didn't matter, and in fact, being together in the space helped both our work.

After settling in, we took a walk with Lewis around the property. We marveled at the small waterfall, the ornate bridges, the two swans that lived in the pond, the boat house, the ornate brick chicken coop, the goats, and a stand of trees with two deer sculptures standing guard at the entrance of a path through the mini patch of woods. We stopped and admired the deer, whose broken antlers had been replaced by branched twigs. Later, Lewis' first painting was of these deer guarding the entry, and I loved it so much he let us buy it. Now, it hangs on the wall at home as a reminder of that beautiful moment when we were seeing everything for the first time.

The Food!

There was a dinner bell, so we all went inside, where we lined up in the kitchen to have Chef Marie explain the menu. In her French-inflected English, she described our first meal: pates de Loraine, green salad with toasted goat cheese, carrots, mashed potatoes and beef bourguignon, and an almond praline tart with a special pink sugar. Every mouthful was a delight. And so it went, each day a lovely breakfast of croissants, hard-boiled eggs, coffee, and cheese, followed by time in the studio, uninterrupted until a lunch of exquisite leftovers from the night before. Then, more work until around 5:00 when Fallon opened the cave, and we could purchase bottles of wine for the evening. Champagne flowed, people gathered and talked until dinner, another well-planned menu from Chef Marie and her helpers.

The Magic Supply Closet

Our studios had comfortable chairs, easels, and big tables. Down in the basement was a room we called the magic supply closet, a space filled with art supplies left by past artists. Even though each of us raided it regularly, it seemed as if no matter what you needed, you could find it there. I began thinking I would work in encaustic- I had brought wax and brushes, and there was a choice of several hot plates, all of which I lugged upstairs. But, it wasn't the right time and place to work with hot wax, so I quickly decided to work in collage instead. For my new idea, I needed lots of good-quality glue and checked the magic closet. Tucked away in the back I found an extra large jar of matte Mod Podge, a product I had never used before. It had leaked in someone's suitcase and was glued shut, but with some cajoling, I could twist the lid off, and I had all the glue I needed. There were rolls of primed canvas available, so I started buying a meter or two every day, painting part of it to use as collage materials and saving part to use as my background.

The Work

I cut up my painted canvas and used the parts to assemble my paintings. When I had a good composition, I glued down the pieces with Mod Podge. The adhesive is quite wet and left the canvas wrinkled, but they gave me an iron and after a lot of work (who knew I would spend so much time with an iron?) I found I could flatten each panel, and make pieces I'm proud of.

When I began painting, it seemed that the only color I wanted to work with was green, all the shades of green I saw in the lush countryside surrounding us. My first pieces were compositions in green, black, and gold or silver leaf. Then, slowly, the nights became cooler, and the leaves began to change. Yellows and reds began to seep into my palette. In the end, I had twelve finished pieces, all of which I consider to be abstract interpretations of the landscapes of Orquevaux.

The People

While I enjoyed the beauty of the place and the opportunity to work so intently, the most profoundly moving and essential part of the residency was the people there. I came home feeling like my understanding and awareness of the world had been expanded a little bit by every person I encountered at Chateau D' Orquevaux.

Today, I can hear Kathleen Jennings murmuring subtle observations of details in the room, noting the expressions on the taxidermy stag heads: “That one is NOT approving. That one is benevolent and amused.” Scribbling sketches of the most accurate gestures and facial expressions of each person in the salon.

(Photo by Arden Rose)

Lewis's happy enthusiasm makes everything around me look brighter and more exciting.

I have picked up some of Dawn's wry humor and the ability to notice the potential for sensuality in everything.  You can read Dawn's blog post about our time in Orquevaux here: Dawn Dehel

I can see Arden's view of a shimmering landscape.

I can smell Maggie's magical, mossy fairyland view of nature, all in green and gold.

I feel Jason's deep sensitivity to color and light, and the solid presence of someone or something ( a man, a gorilla?) is always there.

Paula has shown me how to mend holes in one's heart, with loving stitches in soft yarn and swaddled branches.

I have felt Chantal's cathartic release of the pain and beauty of passion.

Francesca has revealed to me a revised mythology of the feminine in vivid color and texture.  Visit her website by clicking HERE.

Beck has shared deeply personal feelings in her tarot-like paintings. Three of swords, the sun, the moon. A reading for a moment in time.

Joy's joyful take on historic buildings and her ability to laugh at herself as the protagonist of her own life's adventures, so warm, observant, and funny- has helped me see my world in a new way.  You can see her work HERE

Photo by Alexis McKeown

I have Heather's sunshine smile, the feeling of joy just being near her, and the depth of feeling behind that smile, coming through in the happy atmosphere of her paintings. You can visit Heather's website here: www.heatheradamek.com

I observe Paula's deep inner work, exorcizing the pain of the past and coming into the present with a brilliant burst of color and light.

I see the focused observations of Adrian as he explores all the cobwebbed corners and wobbly window reflections of the estate.

Photo by Paula De Stefanis

I feel Catherine's in-depth view of another person's creative space, the old work shed so familiar with its cookie tins full of hardware. Her work reminds me that an art studio isn't the only place where a person can find themselves.

And I have Katy K's bold enthusiasm for life, her energy laid out in thick, luscious paint.

I hold Jasmine's multifaceted layers- her fantastic production of a balanced existence: art that reaches out to the universe to bring a sense of order to practical life- showing us that she absolutely CAN do it all: film, poetry, painting, and most of all, bringing up a whole crew of humans, five children, her most important life's work. Jasmine's website is HERE.

And I have Katy  R's ( Captain Robbo) infectious laugh, her readiness to make friends over a glass of wine, her art all sparkling observations of the tiniest details (an orange slug, a flower urn) made permanent, carved out of metal and enameled.

I see Alexis' fraught delicate beauty, visibly fragrant, romantic, and ever so slightly overripe, nearly bruised.

I have received the open-handed generosity, support, and encouragement of Ziggy and Beulah.

The sense of being looked after, provided for, and and kindly kept in line by Fallon. (“It's 10:30, time to take the party down to the Cave.”)

I have Dusty' the orange kitten's playfulness and interest in everything: follow that one home, chase that rock, observe the swimmers- now take a nice long nap in a tulle skirt in the sunshine.)

I have Lorine's care, pretending to scold us for taking out the cheese plate after hours, shaking her finger at the baker for being late, and singing along to the sound of Edith Piaf after breakfast, singing “Non, Rien de rien!”.

Marie's lovingly prepared meals have nourished me.

I have enjoyed the relaxed energy of the family of workmen, relaxed and dusty, playing boules with beers in the driveway after a day of constructing new studios in the stables.

In my heart, I always have the swans gliding peacefully through the green pond.

And I have the continuous sound of the waterfall rushing along, as I work intently in the studio space of my dreams.

In the end, I returned home with Justin, his new work, cyanotype photographs displaying his sense of delicate beauty, softly romantic and slightly skewed. And I have my latest paintings, abstract memories, snapshots of Orquevaux.

photo by Dawn Dehel
https://www.domenicabrockman.com/