Living France Magazine Article

Lynda and her husband, Howard were recently featured in an article in Living France magazine. You can download the article by right clicking here or you can read below.

Mark Sampson meets an artist who runs rural retreats for aspiring icon painters in the peaceful Lot countryside

What are the words of that old popular song ''Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and -start all over again.' Lynda Miller Baker has done so many times but always her talent, her determination not to be thwarted by fate and her passionate belief in an alternative way of life have carried her through. Had Lynda never taken up icon painting, she would still stand out from the crowd. Nearly 40 years after the germ of an idea, Lynda and her husband, writer Howard Baker, found their way to Thamon an isolated farm in Lot, where they now work the land and host rural painting retreats. Guests here are mainly - but not exclusively - Lynda's students, who come to learn about painting icons while enjoying a kind of 'holistic holiday': chance to get away from the noise of civilisation discover what's truly important in their lives.

'Probably about half of my students are from city,' Lynda explained. 'Most have busy lives and come here to give themselves some space.' I went to discover what exactly Lynda and Howard offer these busy guests. Thamon lies just off the main road that runs from Padirac to the celebrated gouffre, the gaping abyss down whose vertiginous steps tourists in their legions descend each summer to take in the grotto and the underground river. For two months each year, it's a busy road; for the rest of the time, it's little more than a line on a map.

On arrival, Lynda is at work in her studio in in their stately - yet welcoming - farmhouse. Howard is outside digging up some organic vegetables. 'This the Limargue,' he explains with the pride of someone who revels in the role of farmer. 'It's quite a distinct strip of rich land that runs down from the [arid] causse to the poorer meadowland the other side .- St-Céré. The soil's good here.'

“They complement each other well. Howard is the gruff tenor to Lynda's melodic alto.”

Five tips for adapting to life in rural France
1	Introduce yourself to people - particularly to the mayor: it's respectful, and they're very influential
2	Make friends with your neighbours - see how they do things and join in
3	Take part in local events and mix in with the community
4	GO by the rules. If you're not sure whether you can do something, go and ask first. It's much better than being told you can't after you've done it
5	lf you get a TV, watch some French programmes - you'll absorb the language by osmosis!

They complement each other well. Howard is the gruff tenor to Lynda's melodic alto. His wry lugubrious demeanour belies a worldly wisdom; Lynda has a bright, infectious vivacity that patently keeps her forever young. In the studio, she's entirely focused on her work. It's an oasis of calm and endeavour, with the sunlight streaming through the windows and reflecting off a host of golden icons. Buoyed by a recent commission, she sits at her imposing desk, working with the precision of a surgeon. She shows me some of the tools of her uncommon trade: what looks like a doll's wallpaper brush, the fine bristles of which you rub on your hair to create enough static to lift up a leaf of gold and lay it on the painting; and a burnishing 'pen' of polished agate. 'Even the slightest scratch or blemish on this will tear the gold leaf.' Her smile suggests hard-earned knowledge.

Works of art

When Lynda met her husband-to-be in 1968, she was creating sketches for a London in-house fashion designer. So what brought her to iconography? 'The heat!' she laughs. 'I would take shelter in all these beautiful old French churches. I could sit there, nice and cool, just meditating on these amazing works of art. I love the fact that they're so ego-less. They're never signed - and I only sign mine if I'm asked.' Using traditional materials such as a gesso base, egg tempera, natural pigments, garlic juice (to fix the lettering to the 24-carat gold) and egg-white glaze, creating an icon entails multiple layers and much concentrated work. Lynda uses found pieces of wood. 'The shape and texture of the wood dictate what goes on it. In some ways, it's the hardest part: finding the right piece of wood.'

Working as an Artist

Thamon is the answer to Lynda and Howard's search for the rural idyll;

Lynda and Howard's aim is self-sufficiency;

Their vegetable patch is quite something!

We break off to join Howard downstairs in the kitchen where they ply their guests with meals that Lynda prepares, wherever possible, with home-produced ingredients. We sit around a great oak table in front of a fire roaring in one of those monumental hearths by which previous 'Thamonites' would have spent a considerable chunk of their lives. Like the house itself, the kitchen is a tasteful and endearing mix of quirky and traditional. It's appropriate that they should end up here in La France profonde: archetypal destination for their French counterparts, who swapped the city for the land once the revolutionary ardour of 1968 had died down. 'When we moved from our south London semi to a derelict smallholding in mid-Wales, we felt part of a whole movement,' Lynda enthuses. 'I loved it. It was fun - but hard work. We bought a cow and goats and made our own cheese. We were doing really well, trying to be completely selfsufficient.' Until the recession of the 1970s...

Forced to sell up, they bought an old lorry and caravan with the little money remaining and lived on the road for the next two years. Their two girls would go to a local school while Howard and/or Lynda would pick fruit and work as casual labourers.

After a poor picking season, they returned to Wales. 'We had a horrible winter, knee-deep in mud,' Lynda recalls. 'In desperation, Howard asked me what I really wanted in life.And I said, I wanted to live in a detached cottage, a mile from the road, in Goudhurst. The next day,we drove to Kent, Howard bought a local paper and there it was: cottage to rent. It was cheap and it was,' she laughs with delight, 'a mile off the road.'

Traffic jams

From this seemingly predestined base, the couple rebuilt their lives and bought a cheap house in France. 'Working in the UK, we couldn't be there to tend to it all the time, so we chose a village house: in Caunes- Minervois, about 20km from Carcassonne towards the Montagne Noire,' Lynda explains. 'It was really quiet and rustic. We were fascinated by the Cathar history and just loved the area. It was all so different - with the vines and the cicadas.'But then another economic downturn temporarily derailed them. Once again they dusted themselves off, and - since their girls had by now left home - they moved permanently to France. However, the new airport at Carcassonne 'civilised the area', as Howard put it. 'You started getting traffic jams.' It did, though, boost the value of their house and enable the move to Thamon. With farmhouse, barns, bread oven, pig shed, 45 acres of woods and arable land and a fresh water spring, it seemed to represent the end of a long journey. After all their many moves, the dream of a self-sufficient rural retreat could become reality.

“With 45 acres of woods and arable land and a fresh water spring, Thamon seemed to represent the end of a long journey.“

Working as an Artist

Again, of course, it entailed a lot of backbreaking work. 'Yes, we did it all ourselves,' Lynda beams proudly. 'But our neighbours lent us a tractor and their son helped Howard clear the undergrowth and, right from the start, the local community has been so supportive of our schemes.' Obviously accustomed by this stage to the rustic life, I ask Lynda about the transition to a French version. 'It actually wasn't difficult. Of course it's a different culture, but we Brits have this stereotypical image of the French. Everyone's basically like every other human being. We've always joined in the local life and people love it if you take part. They wish all the English would do that. Maybe we found it so easy to adjust because we've never put down strong roots before. We feel European as much as British: What about the administration? 'Once we understood how the system works,' Howard reveals 'it's been very helpful. Setting up as a farmer, I've had plenty of encouragement: training courses, tax credits and so on.'

Artistic careers

Don't they ever get lonely, living this take on the good life? Lynda shakes her head. 'It's been easy enough to make friends here. And we enjoy each other's company; you've got to be good friends.' Howard confesses to missing English pubs.

'But it's pubs as they used to be, not as they are now,' he says. Moreover, the move has reanimated their artistic careers - Howard is writing screenplays now and Lynda is creating and selling her icons (comedian Paul O'Grady is one proud owner). Thamon clearly provides all the facets of rural life that they have come to value so highly: fresh air, peace and quiet, lack of light pollution, comparative lack of stress an a greater sense of freedom.

'Our guests go away inspired and full of energy - and always stay in touch,' Lynda adds. It doesn't surprise me. The Bakers are great company, ready in their unassuming way to share the insights, sagacity and humour that have taken decades to refine.

As a painter of medieval icons, it might seem incongruous that Lynda is not religious. But what she and Howard practise and no doubt inspire is, it seems, a very down-to-earth twenty-first-century form of spirituality. It's this that informs her work and gives it an authentic individual 'voice'. Lynda Miller Baker is no mere copyist - though anyone looking for a path through the maze of modern life might well seek to emulate her example.

First published in the March 2009 issue of Living France Magazine.