The view that's younger than it looks

Everyone knows this image, even if they don't know the name of the place. Sénanque Abbey, all pale stone, sitting in a valley of purple lavender rows. It looks like it's been exactly like that forever.

The abbey has been there since 1148, so that bit's fair. It's survived wars, plague, even a fire that took out half the monastery, and by 1439 was down to a handful of monks from a community that used to number in the hundreds. But the lavender, the whole reason people make the trip? Only planted in the 1970s. Every time I paint somewhere like this I find one detail that quietly rearranges how old I thought a place actually was.

I painted it in watercolour and ink, all that purple against pale stone. There's a poster and a postcard, both with a letter home if you'd like one.

Shop the poster here: Lavender Fields, Provence · Travel Poster