Are you spending your holidays near Saumur and feel like taking an artistic break? This summer, Domaine de Rocheville is hosting a beautiful photo exhibition celebrating biodiversity. To be savoured with the eyes, holding a nice glass of organic wine in the hand…
Focus on biodiversity
Every year, the wine estate makes the walls of its shop and its large tasting room available to artists, often local: painters, draughtsmen, photographers…
This year, the exhibition is about biodiversity, a perfect theme for the certified organic wine estate, which has just won the Wine Tourism Trophies in the category “Education – environmental enhancement”.
From 15 June to 15 September 2021, the eco-responsible building will house a photo exhibition called “Focus on Biodiversity”, composed of fifty photos taken by three French artist-photographers from the Saumur region.
A trio of nature photographers
Come and discover the photographic universe of Alain Campo Paysaa, Michèle Lepeintre and Philippe Siriot while drinking a glass of wine made in Rocheville.
The three members of the association Art Photo Passion in Saumur each have their favourite theme (not exhaustive!): birds for Philippe Siriot, orchids for Alain Campo Paysaa, water for Michèle Lepeintre.
As the result of patient observation, their photos reflect with vibrant colours and astonishing precision the details of these insects, birds, flowers… that we come across in fields and gardens without always paying attention and which are nevertheless so useful to the balance of ecosystems. Do you know how to recognize a Eurasian nuthatch, a Violet limodore or a hemaris? You will know after visiting the exhibition!
High quality prints give each soberly framed photograph a relief and substance that stand out even more clearly on the winery’s white stone walls.
Focus on our photographers
Michèle Lepeintre – “Nature Colours”
Passionate about photography since the year 2000, Michèle Lepeintre followed training courses in “Nature Reporting” and “Artistic Mediation through Gestalt Therapy” which led her to develop a more creative and personal artistic practice.
Currently, she works within the associations “Art Photo Passion” in Saumur (Maine et Loire, France) and “Camera Natura” in Coutières (Deux-Sèvres, France) in order to develop her technique and to share with other enthusiasts.
Through her 100% nature photos, she can connect with biodiversity. She likes subjects that open up the imagination: water, insects, emblematic flowers of the Saumur region such as the Fritillaria meleagris. She considers each photo like a show offered by nature with an infinite range of colours, lights and nuances.
Alain Campo Paysaa – “Naturally Curious”
Alain Campo Paysaa likes to call himself a naturalist first and a photographer second. His passion for nature goes back to his school days, his aquarium and his insect collection. He went on to study biology, where he deepened his knowledge of the living world. In 1974, he started to work as a naturalist photographer. Botany and photography courses as well as numerous trips in France and around the world led him to refine his technique. At the crossroads of his two passions, he is a volunteer at the LPO (League for the Protection of Birds) and is involved in the association Art Photo Passion in Saumur.
During his hikes in the Saumur region and the hours spent in his garden, Alain Campo Paysaa captures his favourite subjects: landscapes, flowers and insects.
Philippe Siriot – “Bird Portraits”
Philippe Siriot is passionate about photography and nature. The variety of the avifauna in the Saumur region allows him to photograph birds that evolve close to us but that we do not know: black-headed warbler, Montagu’s harrier, Hen harrier… His photographs are minimalist in order to emphasize his subjects.
Through his pictures, he shows the beauty of a threatened natural environment. The exercise requires long periods of location scouting and a lot of patience: “It is certainly time-consuming, but also very satisfying to be able to observe the life of our feathered neighbours in this way”.
At a time when biodiversity is increasingly threatened, his photographs bear witness to the beauty of a natural environment that could disappear if we are not careful.
Photo exhibition of biodiversity at Domaine de Rocheville
The exhibition “Focus on Biodiversity” resonates with the environment and the eco-responsible philosophy of Rocheville since its creation in 2004. Indeed, biodiversity is the winemaker’s ally and its development is encouraged by the replanting of hedges, the installation of nesting boxes for chickadees, rose bushes at the end of the rows of vines, grassing of the plots… and the investment of the estate in the Terra Vitis label since 2011, then the Organic Agriculture label since 2019.
This summer, come and visit this colourful and surprising photo exhibition while tasting one of Rocheville’s wines: Crémant de Loire, Saumur Champigny, Saumur Blanc or Saumur Rosé. Your senses will be awakened and you will live a unique sensory experience, 100% natural and eco-responsible.
Practical information about the photo exhibition
The exhibition is freely accessible during the opening hours of the winery :
-From 15 June to 15 September: Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6.30pm, and Sunday from 2pm to 6pm.
The estate is entirely on one level, accessible to people with reduced mobility and pushchairs.
For all information on visits, tastings, events and wines, call us on +33 2 41 38 10 00 or send us an e-mail.
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