April in Britain and France: Part Two: Paris

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 Paris, oil on card, 16 x 18.5 cm    AVAILABLE

 Montmartre, oil on card, circa 18 x 16 cm     Available at No 31 Gallery

The two above are the result of my perambulations in central Paris: not an especially easy place for painting, given the crowds of tourists who make it difficult to work peacefully. And, as a generality, famous landmarks rarely make for good paintings, as it is very difficult to develop an original attitude to them. But I am very pleased with my Eiffel Tower picture.

I would have been better off with an easel: I have since acquired a portable one: rather heavy.

The three below are from or near my little apartment in the 12th Arrondissement, Bercy, which I found more satisfactory, partly because there is so much space to work, and partly because it is not really part of the museum city, and has industrial and railway features that, aestheticised, have a definite anarchic visual appeal.

For many painters, French painting is a touchstone: this is certainly the case for me, and a trip to France is in some way inevitably a homage, specifically in my case to painters such as Utrillo or the Impressionists. I think my picture of Montmarte has sufficient Utrillo in it to count as a homage.

Railways, Bercy, oil on card 16 x 18 cm  - available

This picture, above, has many damp spots

 Bercy, looking West, oil on card, 16.5 x 22.5 cm  AVAILABLE

Near  Bois de Vincennes, Paris. oil on card, 16 x 18 cm     AVAILABLE

Rooftops, Bercy, Paris, oil on card, 16 x 18 cm  AVAILABLE

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Many thanks to Frédéric Glorieux for his kindness in Paris.

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April in London, Paris, Scotland and Somerset.

I'm pleased to say that I'll be travelling in April: London- Paris- Edinburgh- Glasgow- Somerset and back to London.

I am most concerned about Paris, which I fear might have totally transformed into a museum city.

There is also the fact that my notions of Paris are so heavily informed by black and white photos of the 1930' and 40's, and by paintings by Utrillo. This is a problem as part of me is inclined tops seek to interpret and represent Paris through the pictorial devices used in a previous epoch by artists to communicate to another generation.

What can one do about this? Not much, except to be conscious of inauthentic responses. I had thought in the past of developing a self-consciousness about this by very deliberately painting touristic, postcard pictures, but I am not sure how successful this was: a steroptypical view remains one, regardless with what spirit it is seen or represented.

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Do join me for a drink in any of these places if you feel like it. 

A Journey to Bolivia: part 2: Potosi

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These are from Potosi, the extraordinary city high up in the Andes, famous for silver mining, and dominated by a strikingly triangular mountain. The air is thin and the light is sharp and the colours are bright: excellent for painting.

 It`s freezing at night. My Japanese friend became very ill after the twelve hour night bus journey here from Cochabamba, because there was no heating on the bus.

View, oil on card, 13 x 12.5 cm - available

Arch, oil on card, 14.5 x 19 cm   SOLD

As always, it`s enjoyable to wander out to the edges to cities. The centre has been elegantly restored and is given over mainly to tourism and services. The fringes are developing, fairly rapidly, with dense housing, some of it rather basic.

Periphery, oil on card, 10.5 x 15.5 cm

 The Andes seen through a street, oil on card, 15.5 x 18 cm - unavailable

These last two are from the centre, the first very much like Utrillo, I think:

 A street, oil on card, 15.5 x 17.5 cm  - available

 A view showing the barracks, oil on card, 17 x 16.5 cm    SOLD

This last is among the best of the trip.

I`m often seeking a balance between spontaneity of paint application and exactitude, and not always finding it. Sometimes the pictures become overworked, at other times they appear unfinished, or incomplete. I think here I achieve this balance.

These subjective critical qualities are very difficult to put into words. There`s very much a you know you`ve got it right when you feel it`s right aspect to them.

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Wall of a sports club with water tower and spotlights behind; The School of Paris

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Wall of a sports club with water tower and spotlights behind, oil on card, 13 x 9.2 cm  - available

Today's painting tries to do something with dry oil paint for texture: when I see crumbly oil paint I think of Utrillo, that almost forgotten School of Paris painter.

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I wonder how the School of Paris painters will be judged in generations to come- my feeling is that they will be judged rather harshly. I suggest this because I fear they will be regarded as mere picture-makers: criticised for not tackling more dramatic subject matter; for a parochialism, indeed.

My feeling is that modern tastes demand the extreme, the perverse, the discomfiting, and that the so-long fruitful dialogue between painting and furnishing- which underpins much School of Paris work, is even despised..

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I shall be going to Curitiba this weekend- I hope for good weather. There are often good exhibitions there.

Sapling on a riverbank; David Sylvian; tourist pictures; getting into my stride

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Sapling on a riverbank, oil on card, 7 x 9.4 cm  - available

 

 

 

The creek cuts through from bridge to bridge at the back of Itacorubi, and I've found a little path, much overgrown. I went along it, passing a couple of fishermen. 

It`s a great place to work- tranquil. I might think of myself there working as John Crome, great Norfolk painter of discreet places. A thread connects all the artwork I've done, regardless of style or medium: the revealing of secrets. Finding and depicting obscure or hidden parts of Florianopolis is a way of revealing secrets, showing an intimate and private relationship with a hidden or un-noticed place. 

This is a theme that connects many artists I love- photographers such as Atget and painters such as Utrillo or Morandi. I first became aware of my attraction to this theme through music, specifically songs by John Foxx, or David Sylvian: 

  Once again I'm hiding in backwaters Running this way and that Trying so very hard to please (beware of hidden snares) Rushing to bite the hand that feeds me Running this way and that (there are always other possibilities) This way and that 

Backwaters, David Sylvian, 1984 

 Given the themes of secretness, hidden-ness and exploration so animate my work, I wonder if the idea of making the London Tourist paintings, and, in November, the Italian and Maltese ones is such a good idea? 

Such pictures of monuments and given views are surely against my every instinct. But perhaps it is good to oppose ones known instincts from time to time. 

 

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Above are some pieces of card being prepared for paintings. I'm very happy with this small format, which suits my working speed and also keys nicely into the idea of "revealing secrets", as outlined above. It took me a couple of years, however, of fairly steady work to get into my stride- to locate myself in the aesthetic- the first little pictures were generally underworked and to my eyes now, sloppily crafted, sometimes painted on badly primed supports. 

As I have worked steadily, I've managed to develop critical axioms, and raise the general level of my work. I'd say of every five pictures (a usual week), one is an outright failure, two are mediocre, and two good. Usually in twenty there is one which I love.

 But I have good patches and bad: now is a good one, though I scarely dare admit that for fear of jinxing it. 

 

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Estreito, Street

Estreito, Street, 15 x 11 cm, oil on card

I think this week at some point I'll make a still life arrangement of bright boxes and bottles.

This one feels a bit like a Utrillo, an artist whose work must have gone totally out of fashion as there don't appear to be any monographs on him currently in print.