Valensole Lavender Field

The plateau between the Verdon Gorge and the Durance, where the lavender goes purple in late June and is cut by mid-August. Rows run to the horizon, broken only by a stone farmhouse or a single almond tree. Lavandin is the hybrid grown here, more productive than true lavender, harvested for the oil that scents Provence. The bees come in such numbers that the fields hum. The light is hardest at noon and softest the half-hour before sunset, when the colour reads warmest.

Slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, in our family studio in Knoxville, Tennessee.