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Toulouse and the training ship Tectona

Tectona_5_IMG_6993_d.jpgFinished re working the  marine painting of the sail training yacht Tectona today

This afternoon, went shopping in Toulouse,  for Pesuach.

I was surprised to see fresh snow en route and more in Toulouse.

T_IMG_6997_wp.jpg

In Toulouse I saw lots of quite fresh snow.
Roads here and across the Tarn are quite chewed up by the winter weather.
Even in the city there were large and I mean large pot holes in the road.
People in Toulouse said this snow is very unusual. I just thought it very cold.
The forecast here is for milder weather starting on Monday but it may be late arriving.
Lots of spring flowers are out along with catkins and other encouraging signs.
The birds are getting noisier in the mornings and before the new snow and cold spell the frogs at Itzac were starting to sing at night (when I say frogs I mean frogs).

Toulouse is the 4th largest city in France, some thing of a boom town, the shopping centers not shown here, are excellent.

Toulouse also enjoys a wide range of small specialist shops.T_IMG_6998_wp.jpg

Founded by the Romans, the fortunes of modern Toulouse are built around the Airbus and space industries.

Consequently Toulouse attracts an international population including many British and the university is very popular.

The city enjoys a very vibrant cultural life partly driven by a large student population.

It was also sad to see a lot of beggars…

~

Tectona

This was always   fine painting, the first where I’d used only a knife to paint the sea.

However, as it remains unsold and my knowledge has moved on I decided to make some changes mostly to the sky.Tectona_det_1_IMG_6961_wp.jpg

It took 4 attempts to achieve the new result which included having to make other minor changes because to alter one part of a painting always effects the balance of other areas.

Tectona originally built in India as a yacht (hence the name, Tectona is a type of Teak) is for fully written up on page

http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/tectona_bolt_head.html.

Tectona has a fascinating history having worked as a sail training vessel firstly for Plymouth Polytechnic (now Plymouth University) department of maritime studies and later in the Med.

She was thought lost.

Partly via this web site Tectona was re discovered and has returned to work with young people based again on Plymouth.

Tectona‘s fuller story can be found on the page given above including links to her new owner’s web site.

Tectona sails on doing good work into we hope a bright future.Tectona_det_2_IMG_6962_wp.jpg

I will re price this splendid marine painting at £1,000.00 on the web site.