Imagine you are in the French Loire Valley, in the beautiful town of La Fleche. It’s summer, the weather is partly cloudy, and it is perfectly comfortable; ideal for a bike ride! Well obviously with weather like that, you go for that bike ride! So my daughter Garance and I took the old bikes at my parents’ place, and off we went. It was the exact vision of quaint, rural France: small trails, rivers, fields, and cows all around us. It was beautiful, and I couldn’t help thinking about how I would paint this. I snapped a picture of Garance, with the project already formed in my mind.

Back at home in the US, I was super excited to start. I loved the ambiance from the vintage bike and Garance’s hair… but there was one problem. I do not paint human figures! The project turned out to be much harder than I thought it would be (I cannot tell you how many times I had to repaint Garance’s face to get it right!). But in the end, I still think I managed to capture the moment and the light of the Loire Valley! I hope you agree!