Carl Judson - Guerrilla Painter Notebook

Painting Around Montélimar

Montélimar is in the south of France in the southern part of the Drôme department (province), the western boundary of which is the Rhône River. Across the river to the west is the lightly inhabited Ardèche department – kind of a French redneck outback. To the south of the Drôme is Provence. The Montélimar/Dieulefit region of the Drôme is best known for a small goat cheese, called Picodon, nougat candy and traditional pottery – olives, wine and fruit aren’t far behind.

My oldest daughter, Meredith, and her family live in Montélimar on the Rhône, where she spent her senior year of high school in 1984-85. As a consequence, we have friends there and, between family and friends, it’s hard to find time to escape to paint. Meredith was kind enough to lend us her car, which helped with our occasional getaways.

I took oil primed linen mounted on museum board this trip. The beautiful, fine weave of Belgian portrait linen helps me depict atmospheric distance in these small paintings.

Sarah and I managed to be a few hours early for dinner with a friend in the little hill top village of Le Poët–Laval, so I climbed to the top to capture the view looking east toward the mountains (above right).

View from Le Poët-Laval Drôme - France
Carl Judson © 2007
Oil on oil primed linen. 7 ½" x 10"

In the 12th century some tough customers named Adhémar ruled this part of the Rhône Valley. They built this amazing castle, Rochemaure, on the top of an eroded volcanic pipe that sticks out of the mountain side on the west side of the river. This is a view looking down on the castle ruins and across the Rhône to Montélimar (below).

Château de Rochemaure Ardèche - France
Carl Judson © 2007
Oil on oil primed linen. 7 ½" x 10"

This abandoned suspension bridge (below) spans the Rhône below the village of Rochemaure. The ruins of the Adhémar castle are perched on the needle of volcanic rock way up the mountain side.

The Old Rochemaure Bridge Drôme - France
Carl Judson © 2007
Oil on oil primed linen. 7 ½" x 10"

Another class of majestic structures, the cooling towers of the nuclear generating plants, vie for attention with the castles of the Rhône valley. I think the tension between the sculptural beauty of these huge forms and their controversial use, make these towers a great subject to include in Rhône landscapes.

These two towers (below left), painted from a vineyard in the Ardèche, are at the Site Nucléaire de Tricastin, in the Drôme, about 20 miles south of Montélimar.

These four cooling towers (below) at Site Nucléaire de Cruas are on the Rhône about ten miles north of Montélimar. My vantage point was way up the mountain side looking down on the Rhône and patch work fields in the valley.

France produces about 80% of its electricity from nuclear energy. When Meredith asked one of her English students, a local politician, about safety of the two nuclear power plants near the town of Montélimar, he smiled and said, “What I always say when someone asks me that question is: First of all I live here with my family and feel safe; and that with such blue skies, we are in desperate need of cloud makers, aren’t we?!”