Ecuador or Peru in January?

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Northern Peru, taken from The Rough Guide

The distance from Cajamarca to Chachapoyas is 330 km and takes just over eight hours by car and about eleven by bus. The journey ca be broken at Leymebamba where there is an ethnographic museum. 

The situation in Ecuador is quite alarming with roads blocked and unrest. There have been five deaths. It should surely return to normal by January, in which case I am ready to go for a good long trip there.

But if not, it will be back to Peru, this time to the north- a trip to include Cajamarca, Chachapoyas, Tarapoto, Chiclayo, Moyobamba and maybe Tarapoto.

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Conclusions; Santa Catarina Road Trip/ Rio

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 Cabanaconde, mountain in sun (detail), oil on card, 24 x 21 cm

Six weeks in Peru

Peru is about as good as anywhere I know for a painter to wander around in. It`s fairly safe (at least in smaller towns away from the coast), the weather is clement, the people are pleasant and mostly respectful, it`s cheap and its very varied in terms of landscapes and historical sites. There are few cars in the rural places and you rarely feel that you are in a a big machine as is so often the sensation in developed countries. That is, in the west every place you go has a Visitor Centre selling tat, giving you directions and has signs all over sign saying things like Path may be slippery in the rain. Please use handrail, sufficient indeed to make you feel a piece of processed tuna at the the end of the visit (no thanks National Trust).

This trip was the longest I've done. Six weeks is a short university term, and enough time to exhaust some ideas and develop others. It`s enough time to develop a certain self-sufficiency too.

The main thing is I`m happy to be working on a larger scale now- however tricky that is for traveling around. It`s difficult to store pictures as they never quite dry completely. However, on a larger scale there is much more enjoyment in the physical manipulation of the brush.  And the final piece just has greater presence.

 So to this end I`m preparing larger supports and have built new carriers. These will be ready in about two weeks time. 

The next foreign trip in to the UK in August. Most likely it will be very different in tone as I`ll be meeting considerably more people, and having more conversations. As a confirmed misanthrope this isn't necessarily something to celebrate.

Santa Catarina Road Trip or Rio?

It`s necessary between now and then to plan something to break up my time here- most likely a drive in Santa Catarina, perhaps up to Videira, then to Xanxere  then to Passo Fundo in Rio Grande de Sul, a to cover corners of the state and of Rio Grande de Sul that are unfamiliar to me. That could be done over six days...or maybe it would be more fun to revisit Rio?

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Corire

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I went back to Arequipa from the mountains. But the weather there was terrible: a lifeless grey sky and a drizzle for days on end. So I made my way west to Corire to see Toro Muerto Petrographs, This is a huge expanse of rocks on a hillside carved with simple figures. 

Corire offers a considerable contrast between the green, irrigated valley and the extraordinary barrenness of the mountains that surround it.

 It is not the most lovable place as it`s very hot, filthy and the food is dreadful except in the chicken place close to the Hostal Willy`s and that doesn`t open until 6pm. There are only two buildings of architectural note: a convent and a colourful church. The people are not friendly or helpful or attractive except in the aforementioned chicken joint and a clever toothless chap with a little cart containing a shoe repair kit who fixed my shoes with immense skill so the heels no longer cut. The lady who will prepare a breakfast of egg in a bun and a sort of milkshake using condensed milk in the strange market opposite Willy`s is friendly too, albeit in a bossy way.

Three nights there was enough. I am curious to one day make the journey all the way to Cotahuasi, but that will have to be on another trip. Quite when I am not sure as I intend to conquer Ecuador next.

  Corire, mountain, oil on card, 21 x 24.5 cm - available

 Corire, a big mountain, oil on card, 21.2 x 24.5 cm - available

 Corire, hillsides, oil on card, 21.2 x 24 cm  available

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Chivay part 5

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Chivay, Colca Valley, oil on card, 21 x 17.3 cm - available

 Chivay, a tree, oil on card, 23.5 x 21 cm sidcarded

 Chivay, a road, oil on card, 21 x 19.2 cm - diiscarded

These are the final three pictures from Chivay, an excellent place to work and a highly agreeable town to stay in. But I would recommend that travellers there bring a book to read as the evenings can be rather quiet.

These three are all painted more thickly than the previous set. 

In the six weeks I worked I had enough time to make quite a considerable advance- to work on larger pieces  and more confidently. Indeed, six weeks is probably as long as one can work on a daily basis without fatigue. You'd need a week off and a change of location to some utterly different landscape to maintain freshness.

 But these pictures remain simple in both a technical and conceptual sense.

Are they rather old-fashioned? Should an artist be attempting to engage more with the contemporary world? Anyway, do such questions matter if you enjoy what you do?

Well,  I hope to exhibit some of them here and in Scotland later in the year and will perhaps see if such questions are broached.

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Chivay part 4, in the valley

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Chivay, a hillside with farms, oil on card, 21 x 24.8 cm - unavailable

Chivay, a view across a gorge, oil on card 21.2 x 24.2 cm  SOLD

This is one on the better ones from this trip- it's fluent and captures the grand scale of the place.

Chivay, trees near thermal pools. oil on card, 24.2 x 21.3 cm  unavailable

These three all use relatively thin paint- in contrast the the next set which all were painted using thicker impasto.

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Chivay part 3, fields

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 Chivay, fields, oil on card, 22 x 23.5 cm - available

Chivay, fields and farms, oil on card, 19.4 x 25 cm unavailable

In both cases these were painted from quite high up the slopes, to capture the pattern of terracing and fields.

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Cabanaconde

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 Cabanaconde, mountain in sun, oil on card, 24 x 21 cm SOLD

Cabanconde, mountains, oil on card, 24.5 x 21 cm - unavailable

Cabanconde, mountains and a farm
 oil on card, 21 x 24 cm  SOLD

Cabanaconde is base to explore the yawning Colca Canyon and is a couple of hours bus ride from Chivay. Visitors should be aware that as the town has no banks and almost nowhere accepts cards, they should bring cash with them. 

I am very happy with the work I did there especially the first and last paintings here. When I was younger I felt that serious art was necessarily troubled. As I get older I tend to the opposite opinion: that within cheerfulness lies value.

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Yanque

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Yanque is one of the towns along the Colca. Many have baroque churches of surprising sophistication. They are whitewashed and within are sometimes simple murals. There is a museum with good models of these churches in the central square in Yanque, along with other rooms dedicated to the culture of the region.

 The town itself is nicely perched above the Colca Valley and it has various little hotels. Other towns offer less to visitors and are best visited by car as bus services can be somewhat irregular.

Yanque, a canyon, oil on card, 19 x 24 cm   Available

This is one of the strongest of 2019`s Peru set- it`s fluent and ambitious.

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Chivay part two

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 Chivay, mountain with blue sky, oil on card, 24.2 x 21 cm - unavailable

 Chivay, River Colca, hillside, oil on card, 25 x 19 cm unavailable

Chivay, mountainside, oil on card, 21.6 x 24.5 cm unavailable

The mountains round Chivay are often extremely rocky with just grasses or cacti (some of these rather magnificent) for vegetation. The effect can be rather severe.

 It didn't rain at all for the first week, then there was a phase when the clouds build up to storm in the mid-afternoon.

Every now and then in the paths around Chivay you run into a shepherd with a few sheep. Sometimes the shepherds are young children, sometimes old people. They are quite personable, but often shy- mountain people perhaps. There are few cars and it is an extremely agreeable place to work.

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Chivay part one

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Chivay is a pleasant small  town which serves as a gateway to the splendid Colca Valley. 

 Mountains and firs, Chivay, oil on card, 19.5 x 24.4 cm - available

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My fourth Peru trip- Arequipa

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Arequipa, gardens, oil on card, 22 x 25 cm  unavailable

This was painted from Ponte Grau or the park by Avenida Bolognesi.

I had an idea of painting more of the gardens here- they are rather formal, with a somewhat fussy planting.

Arequipa is a civilised place, good for reading and lunch, and necessary as a stop off before heading into the mountains. The light is often rather hazy, especially this time of year, and not much fun for painting.

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Lima, three paintings; my fourth Peruvian trip

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Lima, Rimac, Santo Liberato, oil on card, 19.5 x 25.5 cm  available

 Lima, the park near the Art Museum, oil on card, 21 x 24 cm  SOLD

 Lima, Rimac, street, oil on card, 19 x 25 cm - unavailable

Lima is full of great architecture. It`s filthy and everywhere stinks. The light is often hazy, poor for painting. But it`s fascinating to wander around. 

This painting trip was a great success with many fine paintings. I`m always dubious about saying such things in case I jinx myself.  

I wasn't intending to come here. I was planning on going to Ecuador. But because they need Yellow Fever Certification to enter Ecuador from a tropical country, and I didn't have this, I couldn`t board the flight to Quito. 

Luckily I had a b-plan, the the b-plan was southern Peru- Arequipa and the mountains there. 

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Annual Review 2018; social media

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2018

The year often had an enervated quality. I spend a good deal of time waiting. I was not bold with planning. 

Travels

There were three trips in 2018: Peru, Uruguay and the USA.

Ayacucho, a view across a gully, 21.7 x 17.7 cm

Peru was a success: the weather was kind and the work was often good. I spent a considerable time exploring Lima, a rich and curious city. The people of Peru are modest and leave you alone. The scenery is interesting as is their bizarre culture and it's blissfully cheap. I started working on a  a larger scale, a tendency I pushed across the year.

Cabo Polonia, Uruguay, sea, oil on card, 21.7 x 27.7 cm Not for sale

In Uruguay, a pleasant country for which I feel considerable affection, my trip was ruined by sickness and I spent a week in bed in two hostels. 

This is the risk inherent in shorter journeys, that a mishap or a bout of sickness renders the whole trip worthless. Short trips might be considered a waste of time and money. No sooner have you unpacked then you are off again, and the cost of flights weighs more heavily when taken as per day cost. But such trips do break up the ennui induced by teaching...

Chicago, view down from an apartment on Madison Avenue

 oil on card, 23.2 x 20 cm unavailable

I did some nice pictures in the USA  but the trip was not enjoyable. 

There's a disagreeable atmosphere in the USA: a lack of true spontaneity in relations and sometimes boorishness. It doesn't take a great psychologist to see that there must be something profoundly wrong with a people if they feel the need to elect someone to tell them how great they are all the time. This combination of insecurity and boastfulness characterizes much in Chicago. There is a rarely quiet ease there, a considered pride. Big and brash is best. 

 Despite it's reputation for gracelessness, New York is better but it's often a tired or angry place. I didn't sense that people have much fun in either city.

The work

I worked with fair discipline and the pictures became steadily bigger.  I worked small on some still lives, but moved up to a roughly A4 size for landscapes. I attempted two different approaches.

In the first I tried to push a sort of "Chinese" style- economical and rapid and intimist. The second  style I refer to as "blocky"-  using large squarish marks to delineate simplified forms. The colours are usually bright, rarely tertiary: extrovert. This style works satisfactorily with buildings. There are various crossovers between the  two approaches.

In Brazil

Rua Luis Pasteur, Trindade, Florianopolis, looking down

 oil on card, 20.5 x 22.5 cm

I did a run of pictures in this neighborhood. I also explored architectural subjects. This went nicely and  I didn't go to the mountains at all nor visit other places in Brazil. There are reasons for this. So much of much of my work is concerned with architecture and there is very little architectural variety in Brazil. And what there is is often poor, and poorly integrated into nature.

The landscapes are often very inaccessible because of the way land is closed off by landowners. It is not always easy to find a trail or place you can walk to get views. The rights of way you get in the UK are unknown here.

Exhibitions

There as a show at BRDE. It went well. It sold well and functioned as a review of the last few years and some of the Peru work. There was also work on display in Scotland. There was supposed to be another show here but it never happened because the gallery was messing around. 

Social Media

Like many, I suspect, I am unhappy with social media. It simply does not seem to fulfill much of its promise. Like me, I once thought it would be a means to connect with like-minded people internationally, and while of course this does happen, too often it seems to be a forum for banality or unpleasantness..

Of course, as with all media, one can say what matters is how one uses it, and the user is to blame for the world they inhabit with a specific medium. However, each medium does seem to bring certain emphases, and this medium seems to emphasize transitoriness and celebrity-narcissist culture.

I also dislike how social media- usually Instagram or Whatsapp or Facebook- obtrude, their use determining how social situations develop, with silly set-up photo opportunities breaking the flow of conversations and justifying bossiness on the part of those taking pictures on their mobiles and imposing fake behaviors on the subjects. I dislike how the mediated, parched world of social media is now a substitute for real exchanges and experiences. I see people in galleries taking photos of each other in front of exhibits without even considering the exhibits themselves.

In contemporary art the use of social media is closely related to advertising, especially through the development of easily recognizable visual catchphrases and interjecting a chummy personal aspect.  One should take photos of ones home, situation work in progress and so forth, as well as one's finished work in such a way as to create an image, a brand, and henceforth a following.

Most artists can take a bit of this, and might even enjoy it. They understand that people wish to get to know a bit about them and where they are from and what they objectives are and that this helps in the understanding of their work. But many artists don't want themselves to be focus of their practice. They want their artwork and the things they are developing using art to be the focus. 

Well, all this is a roundabout way of describing my unease with using social media.

Flickr

I am annoyed with the site management for messing with the site. I consider not using more but as it now contains a readily accessible catalogue perhaps that would be unwise- though that catalogue is also available on Facebook. I have risen from 937  to 959 followers. 

Blogger

The number of followers has hardly grown. There are 85, up one. 

Facebook

The site is a good place for showing work and maintain contacts but I sense that it is being used less and that people are transferring to Instagram. I have a "page". It has 82 followers, a good hike up from last years's 3 and connected to my exhibition and some reluctant efforts I made.

Instagram

I started using this and found it rapid and easy. Now I think it it is just another invitation to waste time peering into a tiny screen. There is desolation in all this. I have 136 followers. 

Twitter

I went through a phase of posting stuff here but then gave up as there was so little interest it's not really a site designed for visual arts. There are 253 followers.

Saachi

There was one sale on this site. Sales usually necessitate endless phone calls with the an appalling courier service called DHL. 

Tumbler.

Occasionally I posted here but it opened no doors. There are 31 followers. 

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Thanks

Thanks to the BRDE, especially Prisclla Gobbi,  and Vikki Debden, who helped hang my show, buyers, my ever supportive parents and random strangers who made trips more agreeable.

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2019

The year will begin with Ecuador, a six week trip, then to the UK in July, or perhaps August, for at least three weeks. I want to do more work in Scotland and as ever there is the question of where to stay there that isn't cripplingly costly.

I read things from time to time about travelers who have such and such adventure when their four wheel drive loses a wheel or two in some ravine or other and they seem secretly pleased about this when it happens. But my mindset is essentially bourgeois, though I like the nicer youth hostels as they can be agreeable social spaces.

A pond at a ranch, oil on card, 15.5 x 17.5 cm

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This January...Peru- around Arequipa, carriers

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Map from The Rough Guide to Peru (2012)

Peru- A fourth trip- around Arequipa.

The cheapest and also most enjoyable prospect to escape the summer heat here is to go back to Peru. Ecuador is remarkably costly to fly to. I also looked at Bolivia and it also is notably more expensive to get to.

So this time, I propose to re-visit several places down in the south of the country near Arequipa to and add one or two new ones. I fly to Arequipa, then bus up to Cotahuasi where the landscape- a splendid valley- beckons. I also visit Chivay and Cabanaconde to see Colca Canyon. 

Then I return to Arequipa, thence onto Juliaca and Puno.

I`ve been to Arequipa and Puno but not of the other places. It`s reassuring to include which is familiar places on the itinerary.

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Carriers

The pictures all will be the larger- c. 20 x 22 cm - size. When I work on this scale I need take fewer carriers because I can paint a maximum of two such pictures per day. The paintings take up to a week to dry and after a week I can pack them together liberating carriers for new paintings. 

The long and short of all that is that I shall need to take only about 20 carriers for five weeks travel- this saves considerably on packing space.

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Explorations: BRDE exhibition notes

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Explorations

Here are some notes about the works on display at the BRDE show: a sort of introduction and maybe also some memories about what happened along the while I was making these pictures.

About me.

I grew up in Aberdeen, a provincial city in north-east Scotland, notable for stern and taciturn and decent granite buildings, where the people are stern and taciturn and decent too. There are also two beautiful rivers which lead you into the glory of the Scottish countryside. I used to cycle along the Dee in the evenings to escape effects of the tedium of school and smoke cigarettes and try to feel free. I also used to paint pictures though I never thought to combine the two activities.

I haven't changed much except now I live in a messy and not very stern Latin American city and travel by car, a silver Celta called HAY. HAY is my best friend and I love her and we have been all the way down to Uruguay but mainly we wander round Santa Catarina especially the fabulous mountain towns where you get this divine sense of lostness among the Araucarias.

Travelling and painting

Travelling and painting is basically the best sort of travelling you can do. You get to use a kit which consists of a box containing your paints and brushes and which you then mount on tripod to function also as an easel. The possibilities contained within the kit are infinite and glorious and it is your fault solely and entirely if you return home after a longish trip with a pile of rubbish paintings as messing about with them later never works. That responsibility focusses the mind.

I paint using oils which take a few days to dry so I carry them around in cardboard containers which I make specially.

Then you walk around looking for stuff that strikes you and, so long as the sun is shining you are fairly likely to find something. Then you set to work.

Peru

The pictures here are a selection of those made from three trips in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Peru is a country that has very distinct regions and I spent most of most of my trips in the Andes- I avoided spending too long on the coastal cities because of the heat. I spent time in Ayacucho, Cajabamba, Cajamarca, Pacucha, Cusco and Tarma. There are also works from Lima, a place extraordinarily rich in architecture- albeit often dilapidated- Arquipa, Trujillo and Puno.

Peru is quite weird but rather good. The woman of Peru are finely dressed with excellent hats. Dentistry is rare. It`s cheap, quite pretty and the food is awful but the people leave you in peace even if the dogs don't. In fact, the Peuvians are mostly quite shy and courteous and sometimes were kind in bringing me things. Their children do not throw stones at you like Arab children nor attempt steal your stuff like the London brats. In Brazil people are mostly courteous too but not as shy, but still they don't bug you too much. If you have traveled and painted in Arab countries you will know that not being bugged is something to be very grateful for as Arabs harry you mercilessly.

All this matters because if you are painting you want to concentrate and if some idiot stands next to you repeating over and over -as one twerp did in Tijucas, what are you doing? - it is apt to damage your concentration.

Santa Catarina

As I live in Florianopolis the pictures here was based on explorations of the island and primarily the neighbouring regions. The good thing about Santa Catarina is that it has a huge variety of landscapes within a fairly small area and the locals aren`t as inclined to criminality as in other parts of Brazil. Also, it has a good span of different cultures, though architecturally it is quite barren. I get a bit fed up on the island and make regular trips usually to Urubici, Alfredo Wagner, Mafra and other mountain destinations. I did other trips down to Criciuma, to Orleons and way over to the west to Sao Miguel and places in between. I went to Anitapolis and to Araranguá also to Urussanga. It`s not a big state but it`s big enough to allow years and years of exploration.

The Pictures on display

The pictures are a selection to show the range of styles I worked in but it favours most the last Peruvian trip and the most recent Santa Catarina trips. The pictures are not painted slowly but only a few pictures survive. Most pictures I did are like burnt pancakes or horses you bet on and which nearly win but in fact lose, and thus engender a sort of disgust and you would rather not be reminded of them. Hence, they eventually find their way to the scrapheap. That is the way with plein air painting. It is at times agonizing but when it goes right it is very sweet though somehow it doesn't feel like it was because of you but because the hand of the Great Architect somehow pushed things your way for once.

So you only feel it`s you when you lose and never when you win. I don`t know why that is.

Five pictures

All the pictures are very much of the hour. They aren't classical at all. I don't lay much claim to objectivity, nor to harmony and balance or the legacy of Poussin though I know he is magnificent. I`m pretty much a product of the northern subjectivist schools especially van Gogh and Munch, though I love Bonnard and Corot too.

All the pictures are glazed because I wanted to protect them from dust. The oil surface picks up dust quite readily but the glazing does mean you lose some immediacy. I framed the pictures simply and fairly uniformly for the show, but certain pictures might be better re framed for certain contexts such as white walls.

Now, let`s look at five pictures...


1.

Sao Jose, looking across wasteland, oil on card, 13.5 x 11.5 cm

I liked the way the rise up flattened to road into a curve. I like the way the place was basically a dump, they were waging a  war against the environment-, the shamelessness of it all seemed worth recording. The world flattened out makes me think of Mantegna .

2.

The mountains near Cajabamba, oil on card, 17.2 x 15 cm

This is from a place called Cajabamba which is small and fairly lost. I liked the Cezanne-ness of working there, the way the soft air lent such distance to the perspective and how melancholy it all was. I`d like to go back, there are big pigs on the lanes though there is no decent coffee even in the town centre. Milk is not popular either. The hills around are very soft yet exaggerated and have therefore a oddly mysterious quality as if offering endless places for one to hide.

3.

Tijucas, kite flying, 16 x 18 cm   SOLD

Sometimes you just get this sense of people or places that have just been abandoned or forgotten here at times, Europeans just sort of dumped. Or left to their own devices.

4.

Guardo do Embau, with hills in the distance, oil on card, 18 x 22 cm

This painting is available on Saacchi Art

So much of my work has a troubled mind as its emotional genesis but here I wanted to make art which is explicitly about happiness about simplicity.. It`s an easy place to be happy in especially if all you want to do with your life is smoke pot and sunbathe.

5.

Ayacucho, a view of some lots, oil on card, 18 x 16.5 cm

This was painted from the just down from the big square. Ayacucho is a pretty fine painting city except for the dogs. Too many: I saw six them attack a schoolgirl and  this guy and I had to rescue her. She was traumatized and returned home weeping. Anyway, the painting has those rigid geometries that seem to be the norm in Peruvian towns, with the whole place a grid extending with deviations from the central square. But that, from a painters perspective can lend visual sterility, especially in flat place. But Ayacucho has some fine hills, and this is one shows the lots to the north of the town. This picture has echos of Bonnard, I think.

That's it.

When I began to make these small paintings - and indeed they were very small, about half the size of postcards - they were somewhat under the influence of Symbolist photography. They were consequently very tight and a little sad and gray, they failed to reflect the bright colors of sunny Brazil. I think I translated the cold tones of northern Europe with my contained palette and was unconsciously trying to impose nature on them here.

It took me about three years to get the work in order - at least in terms of the overall aesthetic method - by developing critical notions of what "good" or "bad" could mean as a reference to my work, and developing the technical fluency to achieve that goal.

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