The Wood of Love

Bois d’Amour

Following the path along the river just a short walk from the centre of Pont-Aven in Brittany is the Bois d’Amour, the wood of love. This wood has been the inspiration for many artists including Gauguin, Sérusier and Émile Bernard.

The woods belong to the Manoir du Plessis, owned by the Villemarqué family. The area was frequented by the artists of Pont-Aven, as you walk along the river you can find tiled signs telling you about specific pieces of work.

I walked across the wooden bridge at Moulin Neuf, mill nine. It was this area that Paul Gauguin painted in his picture ‘La Baignade au Moulin du Bois d’Amour’- 1886, oil on canvas.

Views of Moulin Neuf

‘The Talisman, the Aven in Bois d’Amour’

The artist Paul Sérusier painted ‘The Talisman, the Aven in Bois d’Amour’ in 1888. He was a pupil of Gauguin’s, and it was in the Bois d’Amor in the Autumn of 1888 that Gauguin gave Sérusier a painting lesson in which he stated the Synthetist principles.

Synthetism

Synthetism is a term used by post-Impressionist artists like Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard and Louis Anquetin to distinguish their work from Impressionism...

Synthetist artists aimed to synthesize three features:
• The outward appearance of natural forms.
• The artist’s feelings about their subject.
• The purity of the aesthetic considerations of line, colour and form.

Source Wikipedia

My source of inspiration!

I made my own little watercolour sketch of the Bois d'Amour.


Watercolours on paper
According to the artist Maurice Denis, Gauguin had told Séruzier : "How do you see these trees? They are yellow. So, put in yellow; this shadow, rather blue, paint it with pure ultramarine; these red leaves? Put in vermilion".
Stood in that same landscape I found that quote inspiring. Now the real question is what colour should I paint the trees?