Generally known as Mim, short for Hermione, which is a bit of a mouthful for general use, she has been interested in art and painting for years, gaining an O' level back in the day! However, life, as ever, took up a lot of time and energy, so it was only many years later, when she ‘retired’ early with her husband Steve to Provence, that she was able to start picking up a paintbrush again. Given the lovely scenery and, of course, the wonderful light, it was inspiring to try & paint the beautiful mountains, lakes and pretty villages, which are literally on the doorstep.

She found that her paintings proved to be popular, so she asked a friend to help with a web site to publicise her work HERE and along the way, she managed to show, and indeed even sell, her paintings, framed & unframed, along with greetings cards. This is where ‘husband Steve’ became an in house printing manager with a supply of plain, glossy cards bought from a printing company in the U.K. Well, he was a marketing director in his day, so how the mighty do fall!

Originally part of a friendly group of painter friends, she has recently stepped out to try and share her enthusiasm for watercolour in particular and started her own group to try what she calls easy art. She really wanted to show, as opposed to teach, some friends how to enjoy the freedom of mixing lovely colours with not only water, but using different techniques of salt, wax crayon, cling film and masking fluid. 

So, that is how this venture called Mimi’s EasyArt started only a few months ago. Several friends, who had long asked Mim to show them how to paint in her free and easy style, gathered together at a mutual friend’s house and suddenly two hours just passed in a flash. She started by showing one of her cards of a simple scene and everyone mixed their paints and began by painting the sky, always a good place to start, then moving on gently to give generous sweeps of a sea colour before adding the essential sand for the beach. Then it becomes fun to add dots of colour to the beach and throw on some salt, sit back and let it dry before gently rubbing out the salt- et voila, you have a painting called Sky, Sea & Sand!

The group continues to meet every Friday morning where we can all paint around the table of one of the group in Cotignac village, & usually there are around half a dozen local friends, who are able to drive in & settle down to a couple of hours painting together - sometimes outside on the terrace with a wonderful view of the distant mountains, beyond which lies the blue Mediterranean sea-idyllic!

It is a very friendly, relaxed circle of painters who are happy to welcome anyone new, & combine the pleasure of just painting, chatting & sharing any welcome tips to improve their work. We have had the occasional local exhibition, & even sold some paintings which is always a pleasure for amateur painters.

The web site is constantly up to date, thanks to the wonderful support from our website creator who posts regular contributions every week. Let Mim know on mimi4opp@gmail.com if you would like to join, as we also have painters who live in the U.K. including the youngest member, aged 11!

Mim plans to continue, so this web site is also a way of sharing all the efforts of the EasyArters online, many of them enthusiastic beginners. Please do feel free to contact her with any questions or new ideas they would also like to share and join in the fun!