La Sourcière / The Water Diviner was one of the first paintings my mother completed after moving into her new flat in Fayence, see the My Dilemma painting for details of the move. A letter she sent to me, dated November of 1973, included photographs of several paintings and the following description.

“The Water Diviner” 21″ x 26″ June 1973 Chez moi [Fayence] “La Sourcière” Subject Rosemary Brevis. Exhibited Grasse June 1973, Nice Sept. 1973. View from the highest hill (the Grand Bois) at Colette. Profile from memory – incident happened at a picnic with the JPs. Rosemary divined water with 2 bits of metal coat hanger. My favourite painting. She actually had dark hair, and meditated, but not our sort. The painting finished in 23 hours seemed to almost do itself – was meditating very well at the time.”
The JPs were the Jackson-Pownalls who were responsible for my mother moving to this particular area in the south of France, see the Biography for more details. The Colette was their large property where Harry JP had physically built his own house despite being able to easily afford having it built for him.

While looking through various sketches my mother left behind, I found a working overlay drawing for the hands used in this painting.

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