News release Public Information Office   SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu     www.selu.edu/news Contact: Christina Chapple Date: 8/29/03   Click on image for publication quality photo PAINTING FROM FRANCE – “Cliffs at Etretat from the Garden” is one of 20 paintings by Southeastern Louisiana University visual arts professor Gail Hood that will be on display September 9-26 on the second floor of Sims Memorial Library. The exhibit opens on September 9 with a reception from 4:30-6:30 p.m. and a talk by the artist at 5 p.m. ON MONET’S CLIFFS – Southeastern Louisiana University visual arts professor Gail Hood paints on the cliffs at Etretat in Normandy. An exhibit by Hood at Sims Memorial Libray will document the two months she spent in France last year visiting and painting at sites captured by the French Impressionists.  HOOD TO EXHIBIT PAINTINGS FROM FRANCE AT SLU’S SIMS LIBRARY       HAMMOND -- Gail Hood went to France last year to paint where the masters painted.       The veteran Southeastern Louisiana University art professor from Covington spent two months of her fall 2002 sabbatical leave in the south of France, visiting sites that previously were captured by the brushes of French Impressionists.        In locations such as Etretat in Normany, Collioure near Spain, and Aix in Provence, she painted, sketched and photographed in the wake of Monet, Boudin, Dufy, Cezanne, Matisse and Bonnard.        The results of her working visit will be on display September 9-26 on the second floor of Southeastern’s Sims Memorial Library. The exhibit, “Paintings from France, Haute Normandie and Provence,” will include 20 paintings done on site in France and seven monoprints completed from photographs since her return.        Hood said her three and a half week stay in Normandy’s picturesque Etretat, where she walked and painted on the white and red cliffs overlooking the English Channel, “was the most enriching.”       “Monet was enchanted himself, having painted at least 83 paintings near Etretat,” Hood said.  “I knew he had painted the rocks on the coast -- paintings I never particularly liked --so my own attraction to the rocky coast itself came as a surprise to me.”       Hood’s exhibit will also include four “hasty” sketches from Collioure, near Spain. “Matisse was the reason I went to Collioure for a few days,” Hood said. The “haste” can be blamed on the rain, which, nevertheless, did not dampen her resolve to paint. Two of her sketches were done from the window of her hotel room.       In Aix in Provence, Cezanne’s home, Hood found that the house she and her husband, Henry, had rented was not as accessible as she would have liked to the sites she wanted to paint. She did four paintings of the Sainte Victoire mount, which Cezanne painted 83 times. “I was as fascinated as he was,” Hood said.       In Trouville, “I tried to photograph some 21st century beach scenes in similar locations as those of Boudin in the 19th century,” Hood said.       Hood will talk about her paintings and experiences in France at the opening reception scheduled for 4:30-6:30 p.m. on September 9. For additional information, contact the visual arts department, 985-549-2193. Return to News Releases