"Treasures of the Vine" - Uzès, Provence

Uzès, a medieval city build on a limestone plateau in Provence, lies about 20 miles north of Nîmes, about 30 miles west of Avignon and about 50 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. In 1632, it became the first Duchy of France.

In addition to the Pont du Gard Roman aqueduct, the region is known for its truffles, wines of the Duché d'Uzès, olives and abundent local market produce. Uzès was also the starting point for the Roman Aqueduct of Nîmes.

Trésors des vigne ("Treasures of the Vine") is the name of the shop in this image. The beautiful lace in the windows above, the architectural reflections below, the oak barrel in front and the rouge colored entrance are subtle reminders of recent corkings, decantings and delicate sippings. Perhaps a cheese tasting would be a nice compliment.

For our wine lovers.

2009 - New Provence Images Added

[Opening night Parade of Lanterns during the Costume Festival in Arles, France, on the 4th of July, 2008.]

Here we are on Valentine's Day 2009 and we're in the midst of scheduling our art shows for the coming season. We'll be adding new show commitments to the "Art Shows" page on our website as jury results come in.

You may have noticed that we veered off our normal course last year by visiting Provence, France instead of Italy. We had the opportunity to perform the works of a Provencal based composer, Pierre Villette, with the Chicago Master Singers in several important Provencal venues. This gave us the opportunity to add new images to our portfolio. We have wanted to expand into the Roman provinces throughout the Mediterranean and this was the perfect opportunity. We were able to combine the two things we love most, photography and music, in this fabulous trip.

We loved Provence. It is definitely similar to Italy in many ways and yet different. Open and friendly people, wonderful foods and wines, fascinating history, etc. What's not to like? We will indeed return there again to spend more time in that region.

This year we will be visiting Puglia and Basilicata in the fall, finalmente! Jane is right in the middle of planning our photo excursion there (you probably already knew that she is the our travel planning guru). If you have any ideas regarding places we should visit or things we should consider seeing, please let us know. We've wanted to make this trip for many years and are really looking forward to seeing the southern most regions of Italy.

We converted our printing platform from Epson to HP over the past year. The HP z3100 uses 12 inks, has a 44 inch carriage and has a built in color management spectrometer. Craig is really jazzed about how well it works and the results it produces.

Canvas keeps growing in interest these days. More and more of our clients are interested in having our images produced on canvas. Canvas works wonderfully in all types of home and business decorating. We can frame them if you wish, but they really work well unframed since the sides are mirrored which finishes the look.

We hope you are thinking about adding to your art collection this year. Even with the weak economy, we have found that many of our clients are more interested than ever in beautifying their homes. As we're all spending more time at home, why not enhance your environment with some new art.

Thank you for being so supportive of us as we've grown over the years. It really means a lot to us to include you, our collectors, as friends, also.

Best,
Craig and Jane