The Old Girls’ Chateau Escape by Kate Galley is out now 💚 Get your copy!
When I decided to set The Old Girls’ Chateau Escape in the south of France I spent quite a bit of time researching Aix-en-Provence and the subtle light there that inspired many French Post-Impressionist painters. The clear skies, consistent sunshine, and vivid natural landscape of Provence have attracted artists for centuries. Among the masters of the French Post-Impressionist movement, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne did not simply chronicle the beautiful landscapes there, they translated them into their own language of colour, light, and form—and in doing so, created some of the most renowned works of art ever made.
The artist, Paul Cézanne lived and worked in Aix and you can still visit his studio there today. Montagne Sainte-Victoire is an eighteen-kilometre limestone ridge that Cézanne could see from his house and painted many times.
Mont Sainte-Victoire seen from Bellevue
My character, Gina Knight, is a retired Art Historian and Museum curator. Her friend Dorothy Reed is a retired glass artist and ceramicist. There are reasons other than art that take them to Provence, but they can’t help but be drawn into that world.
Gina’s favourite Paul Cézanne painting is L’Estaque, Melting Snow.
