Articles by Christine Valin

This town is incredable as every corner is a photograph with its old town which is so picturesque. I only had one day in which to take photos as it was the only good day, but I took a hell of a lot! Hope you enjoy them!

Thank you for all your visits and comments. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your friendship and this atmosphere is so important to me, as it is sincere! I'm looking forward to the next 50 000 visits and I'm sure I will make lots more friends! So, I am back and looking forward to putting on more photos when I get the time. I missed you all!

I shall be away for ten days, so won't be able to put up any photos, but hopefully will get some photos while I'm away if the weather is good. I will miss you all!

These were taken today in my garden, as spring is here at last. The good thing is that I have got back my camera and can now use it. I can't tell you how happy I am as I feel myself now. Enjoy!

These photos were taken a couple of years ago while I was visiting the yacht show in Monaco. Just a lot of money, money, money!

This was a lovely experience for me to see the launching of a motor yacht from the ship yard to the sea in Concarneau. It was incredable how the boat went slowly on the rails and slid into the water. - so slowly as it could not afford to fall! I will be putting up photos of the inside very shortly.

In the meanwhile, I will be putting up old photos to keep the site alive. These photos were taken in Brittany ( Concarneau) in the summer and will give you summer thoughts waiting for it to come!

No more carnival photos! It's over and I will have to wait for next year. Those of you who enjoyed them can look at others I have taken the previous years. Go to: www.ipernity.com/doc/cvalin/album/54274 www.ipernity.com/doc/cvalin/album/48817 www.ipernity.com/doc/cvalin/album/46453 Enjoy!

These photos were terribly difficult to take, as people just walked in the front of you, or else they pushed you accidently, etc. There were so many people there, that it was difficult to even see the carnival. What is interesting, is that this carnival is unique in the world. All the floats are made of oranges and lemons and hence it's called "la fete du citron" or "lemon festival". It is an experience worth while and lasts for two weeks. The sad part is that I have broken my camera and cannot…

And this is what I did - take photos of the town of Menton. I was lucky with the weather, as it is doing nothing but rain, or very cloudy!

We have never seen so much snow in the cote d'azur since we have been living here. It was very exciting to see the mimosa, olives, palm trees etc in the snow! The next day, it was all gone!

This is probably the most difficult portrait I have done. It was not done with a photo (I would have got a much better one!) but by looking at myself in the mirror. The difficulty is that one cannot paint any time. You have to choose the same time every day till it is finished as you have to try and get the same light. As soon as the light changes, it is not you, but someone else! With painting from photographs, the light is already down, so you just do it as it is. One must also realise that th…

These were taken two days ago in my garden. I have taken several photos of them before, but of course one always wants to do better! I have combined them as well and some of the iris have a yellow background which is the mimosa blurred. I thought the colours went so well together. Now we got snow yesterday and all this beauty has been damaged. I will put up my photos of the snow after this series.

It was Sunday the 7th and it was a beautiful sunny day. The sky was so blue and not a cloud in the sky. These photos are just my impressions along the way!

Just a few photos taken at various times to keep us going till spring arrives!

These photos are for the family as we celebrated Tat's birthday last Sunday. You will notice other expressions on Mahé's face, as he is getting older!

Painting and not drawing with coal, is similar to doing black and white photographs. This portrait was done of my sister Liz and it is different to painting it with colour. You get down to the essentials of the form and volume of the face. It is like doing sculpture. In fact, if you don't do sculpture, it is very difficult to do a portrait like this one. Now, this was done from a very small photograph and enlarged to this size. Doing something even more difficult is to do a self portrait looking…

These photos were taken today mainly as I wanted to take "le lavoir" for Christian. There are two in Castellar Christian, which I have photographed for you. In the meanwhile I took other photos which interested me to give you all an idea of the village which is close to where I live. It's a very old village and the houses are incredibly old and some of them even empty. The weather was not wonderful but enough to show the colours of the houses.