Pont Aven Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

"Pont-Aven is mainly known because of the group of artists who flocked round Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, and who were joined in 1888 by Paul Sérusier. They were collectively known as "Pont-Aven School"

Before Pont Aven attracted Gauguin and other artists it was a centre for milling with the river Aven being divided above the town to provide a mill race which powers a series of water mills. Whilst several of these retain their wheels only the last, the Moulin Poulguin is still capable of operating. The mill is now a restaurant and you can see the machinery inside".

From Wikipedia.

This picture shows the River Aven below the town. Some of the old sluices for the mill race can be seen here.

Taken as JPEG: PP in FastStone and PhotoShop 7.

F 3.9: 1/60s: ISO 200: FL 130mm.

saxo042, tyro has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

tyro (2660) 2009-10-02 14:25

Hello, Peter.

I see thirds and I see diagonals and I see a lovely lead-in from something we call a "burn" in this part of the World, but which is clearly the outflow from the millstream. The eye is led straight to the place the mill-wheel once occupied, the rustic fence or sluice gate and the colourful bushes behind.

A nice restful picture.

For what it's worth, I downloaded this picture and played around with it a little in PSE6. I thought some of the lighter areas were just a little "blown out" on my monitor so I made some attempt to reduce that effect: I've also increased the saturation of red and yellow a little too and have posted the whole thing as a workshop. I hope you're not offended by my so doing and I shan't be upset if you think I've overdone it.

Kind Regards,

John.

[workshop] [compare] +

saxo042 (15388) 2009-10-03 8:19

Hi Peter,

I´m sorry it took some time to comment this picture, I saw it yesterday, but I just had time for some quick "one-liners";-) It is quite obvious that you have been thinking of the thirds here, I have also used the grid in FastStone. There is also a good line following the stream from the lower right corner up to the orange flowers. There is certainly good harmony in these details.

But most of all, I admire all the colours here and all the different hues you have found. I think this would be a very fine motive to be painted. Maybe you did this!

A very interesting note too, Gauguin has always been one of my favorites.

Kind regards
Gunnar