Welcome to my blog page, where I shall be posting all my newsletters - now called blogs, from now on.
I mentioned in my last newsletter that I had an exhibition of my floral paintings in Santa Margherita on the Ligurian coast. The exhibition moved to Rimini at the beginning of June where my gallery owner promoted it as a comparison with the works of Chagall.
- which was obviously very flattering but also apt as I had just spent a few days in the Nice area looking at art which included a visit to the Chagall Museum- where I was amazed at the size of his paintings. I had no idea they were so big- they are a knock out and the colour is stunning. I also went to see the late Picasso’s at Antibes. They were part of an exhibition shown in 1971 at the Palace of the Popes in Avignon just before he died. Many people were very negative about the work saying that they were the badly done and “doodles of a dotard in the anteroom of death” Amazing that they didn’t understand the work – it’s tremendous, and in my view expresses the feelings of anger that he was approaching the end of his life. They have of course been subsequently appreciated for the masterpieces that they are - he was always ahead of his time – even so close to death.
The summer months have brought friends to visit and the garden to get into shape – no mean feat, so I have not had so much time in the studio as normal. However I have continued working on my mountain series and am now preparing to exhibit them at Claviere for the whole of August. Lots of work on cards, information boards etc, besides the actual paintings. But it is all good experience as I plan to organise a travelling exhibition of these paintings at locations in the Alps next year.
Here are some of the finished ones – as is the one at the top of the page
Quite by coincidence I have just sold a mountain painting that I made in 2009 to a client in Germany through the offices of Saatchi on line. Saatchi are brilliant at organising everything which saves me a lot of time and headache on official documents etc. Packing it was quite a task as it measures 120 x 100 x 3 cms, plus the client wanted it framed. It had to be shipped in a wooden crate - finally weighing 34 kilos! Whilst it is always good to make a sale I was quite sorry to see this one go as it is one of my all time favourites.
Other paintings that have found new homes recently are.
Silence Belongs to It Near the Crest Tulip Petals
I am now finishing a couple of commissions to paint Mount Chaberton in the Claviere region and the Matterhorn, better known as Il Cervino here in Italy. Then I will do the final preparations for the exhibition at Claviere which will run from the 3rd to 31st August. So you should be hearing from me again in September when hopefully we will have all cooled down!
Thank you for reading my first blog - I am still getting to grips with how to manage it and do things like linking it to email addresses etc - so bear with me for now, and don't forget to follow me on Facebook and Instagram. Have a good summer and stay cool!
The serenity of your Val Chissone piece even made me want to go to our local coastal mountains and I usually avoid them in summer because of the bears! Inspiring work as always.
thank you.
Brilliant!