Renowned British artist Roy Petley has made a home in the Dordogne region of France for over 25 years, finding inspiration in the landscape along the Dordogne river for his paintings. He restored an old ruin, naming it Bellissima, which has become a welcoming home and place of artistic refuge. Petley works en plein air along the river, capturing the light and reflections that remind him of the French Impressionists who have been his greatest influence. The tranquility and nature found in the Dordogne keep Petley creatively energized and away from the busyness of London life.

1. 32 French Property News May 2015 www.completefrance.com
Caught
Renowned British
artist Roy Petley
invites Rachel
Johnston into the
beloved Dordogne
home that has
inspired a profusion
of paintings
I
’m gazing longingly at a painting
of a girl sunning her back on the
banks of the Dordogne river,
straw hat atop her head, and
wishing I could be her. The
reflections of powder blue sky and
ochre trees dance playfully on the
water’s surface and the girl holds a
parasol away from her as she takes
in the scene.
“Oh, I’ve got quite a nice little
picture of a girl sitting on the
riverbank, I’ll have a dig around
for it,” Roy had said, casually,
when I’d asked him about the
work that had been inspired by his
French surroundings. Such
modesty hardly correlates with the
talents of this renowned artist –
who counts members of the Royal
Family among his collectors – but
it certainly endears him to me.
Scenic route
Roy Petley was one of the first
artists to open a gallery on
London’s prestigious Cork Street
and enjoyed much UK success
with his work, which has been
likened to that of Constable and
Seago. But it’s his debt to French
Impressionism that I’m keen to
FPN REAL LIFE
on canvas
probe, especially as he has made
this elegant country manoir near
Bergerac his second home for the
last 25 years.
I’ve always been convinced that
the Impressionists didn’t just paint
France because they were French.
Of course, there was inevitable
patriotism and the ease with
which they could step outside and
capture a slice of village life or café
culture and the quirks of French
society, but there is something
about France’s landscapes that
simply begs to be caught on
canvas. It seems Roy would agree,
having chosen Dordogne as a
painting spot before he moved
here, and it was for its inspiring
waterside setting that he
eventually bought this house.
“The river [Dordogne] is just at
the bottom of the garden – it’s a
great place to work. There’s
something quite wonderful about
the solitude of it; it keeps you
sane. When I’m in London it’s
crazy and I’m always so happy to
get back here.”
‘Bellissima’, as it is fondly
known, lives up to its name in
spades. In a hamlet near the
village of Pessac-sur-Dordogne
between Bergerac and Libourne, it
sits accompanied by a four-
bedroom gîte known as ‘Petite
Bellissima’ in two hectares of
beautiful grounds. Its tranquility is
likely owed to its previous
residents, a group of nuns –
though they were all taken away
by the church in 1910 following a
pregnancy scandal, Roy chuckles.
“I was down by the river
painting away when I first saw this
ruin,” he tells me. “I felt very sad
about its state. I walked around it;
it was all open and broken and
you could see the sky from the
ground floor, but there was a
particular calmness about it.
“I got hold of an agent and
asked if he could find out if it was
for sale, and he said ‘It’s a ruin! It
would cost a fortune to restore
that, you’re crazy!’ Anyway I did
buy it eventually [in 1989], and
we spent five years restoring it.
Every penny from exhibitions went
into it.”

2. www.completefrance.com
State of the art
A sign of Bellissima’s former life
remains in a narrow chapel
window, but it has been otherwise
transformed into a home that
combines grandeur with cosiness.
Classic grey shutters hang against
thick honeyed stone and blushing
hydrangeas are dotted about.
A courtyard terrace provides
ample space for dining and lolling
under the sun and, when the heat
demands it, a vast swimming pool
beckons. “It was hard work, I must
say. We used French builders and I
think they almost retired after
finishing this project,” Roy says.
“When I arrived I had no French
whatsoever, but by the end of it all
I could talk lots to you about
building work!”
If this was indeed the
industrious builders’ final job, boy
did they end on a high. The house
boasts a magnificent beamed
salon, an integral apartment with
its own kitchen and bathroom and
no fewer than seven bedrooms,
each one spacious and beautifully
appointed. Unsurprisingly, it’s
been the destination for countless
visitors over the years.
“I’ve had so many friends and
well-known people dropping their
kids off here; during the summer
it was always full of children. I
remember one of my clients
ringing me and saying ‘We’re
coming past you on the way to
Monte Carlo, could we pop in?’ I
said ‘Come and stay!’ and, after
initially saying no, they came and
fell in love with the place and in
the end I couldn’t get rid of them
– they were here for four weeks.”
It’s definitely that kind of place;
a sort of time-defying ether that
draws you in and steals your heart.
Roy has travelled widely
throughout France and used to
take his son down to paint with
him in the south, but he finds an
incomparable “gentleness” in
Dordogne that seems to better suit
his artistic style and, interestingly,
doesn’t feel it’s as Brit-populated
as is widely assumed. There is just
one other British family in his
immediate vicinity and most of the
Facing page top: Roy and wife Mary
in the stunning, art-adorned salon
Bottom: ‘Reflective Moments’, an oil on
canvas of Mary by Roy Petley
This page clockwise from top:
Bellissima’s quinquepartite facade; the
sitting room with arched windows;
the country kitchen with double doors
leading outside; the sun-drenched
courtyard, ideal for summer dining; Roy’s
studio in the converted barn; the dining
room, where a painting of the Dordogne
countryside takes pride of place

3. 34 French Property News May 2015 www.completefrance.com
FPN REAL LIFE
locals he and wife Mary have
befriended are French.
Sketching an outline
Looking at the map, the
Dordogne-Gironde border actually
runs through a section of the river
itself near Bellissima (games of
‘one foot in Dordogne, one foot in
Gironde’ spring to mind, though
admittedly a harder feat when
treading water). As I chat to Roy I
hear him mention St-Émilion more
than once – “I enjoy good red
wine”, he laughs, and his
claret-clad dining room boasts one
of the largest wine racks I’ve ever
seen – and, indeed, the capital of
viticulture for which Gironde is so
well known is just 25km away.
This steeple-crowned medieval
town surrounded by sprawling
vineyards is a favourite supper
spot for Roy and Mary. It is also
home to The Little Gallery, owned
by a friend, to which Roy has given
various paintings over the years.
The river is just at the bottom of the garden.There’s something quite
wonderful about the solitude of it; it keeps you sane.When I’m in
London it’s crazy and I’m always so happy to get back here
I’m keen to ask Roy about whether
he’s met any fellow painters in the
area, but it’s clear that most local
residents are more admiring
collectors than actual brush-
wielders. Some, in fact, are less
admiring and more mystified. “I
think they see me as a bit of an
oddball really, set up with all my
easels on the banks of the river.
They say ‘Do you still make a living
doing that?’”
A living made or not, France is a
lifestyle choice for Roy, a place
where painting can be a slowly-
indulged hobby rather than a
commercial pressure amid the
frenzy of London. The walls of the
salon at Bellissima are groaning
with delights from his collection
and he converted an old barn
beside the house into a wonderful
art studio, but it’s en plein air
– like the Impressionists – that he
most enjoys working, capturing
the light on the water with
enviable ease.
Mixed media
Roy’s work has been described as
‘interpreting’ rather than
‘reproducing’ nature, a trait
commonly seen in the canvases of
Degas, Monet and Renoir – and he
admits these big names of the
French art scene, together with
Vuillard and Bonnard, are his
greatest inspiration. “I’m
passionate about them and every
time I’m in Paris I nip into the
d’Orsay and go and have a quick
look, to replenish my soul a little
bit.” [High-speed trains run from
nearby Bordeaux to the French
capital in as little as three hours.]
“There’s a few of us who still
paint from life. I always say it’s
easier than from a photograph and
I’d say that to those guys who
work laboriously with airbrushes
and make photographs look
‘beyond’ photographs. In real life
there are soft lines and you can
see the roundness of everything;
in photographs there’s always that
sharp edge. Capturing light in the
flesh is so important.”
As Roy is speaking, another of
his creations catches my eye – a
sketchy pastel of two girls in a boat
on the river entitled simply
‘Reflections of the Dordogne’. In
my own early dabbling, I always
found this one of the hardest
techniques to master, making
individual elements meld together
believably on the water’s surface.
The fact that Roy is largely
self-taught makes his work all the
more impressive.
Personally, I think I’d rather
abandon my palette and take a
trip downriver in Roy’s boat or,
better still: just sit by the water
and sun my back, attempting a
different kind of reflection. n
Roy Petley’s house is on the market
for €1,272,000 with
Beaux Villages Immobilier
Tel: 0033 (0)5 56 71 36 59
beauxvillages.com
Clockwise from top: Roy and Mary make regular outings downriver in their rowing boat, most of which provide sketching opportunities for Roy; each of Bellissima’s seven
bedrooms exudes calm and comfort, combining rustic character features with stylish furnishings and plenty of art on the walls; the house is geared towards summer living with
multiple outside spaces enjoyed by both two- and four-legged friends