Bouquet and Bougival

The self-taught French painter Maurice de Vlaminck felt a deep attachment to nature and the countryside, and adopted an essentially instinctive approach to painting.  He expressed his emotions through the application of colour in thick, dynamic touches which is a style I like. I have had this print of the houses of Bougival on the wall for years and never tire of it. He did lots of different studies of this town on the Seine, with his most famous being a restaurant in a little town square full of flowers.

Because this view of the town has a high perspective, my vase of flowers appears as if it could be on a windowsill of a house on an overlooking hill. Including it as the background gives Vlaminck's painting a fresh airing. I hope he'd have approved! These flowers were the ones I featured quite differently on 3rd Feb.