Domaine Grand Cros,
Autumn 2006
version
française
Brushing with Sunlight
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Domaine Grand Cros, Autumn 2006 |
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version française |
Summer Luncheon at Grand Cros, vii.VI; ink on card
The exhibition was installed on 6th October;
the Party, hosted by the Faulkner family, takes place on Saturday 28th October, at 17h00 till 19h...
Click here for How to Find the Domaine Grand Cros...
For the Grand Cros, you may contact:
Telephone: 04.98.01.80.08 Fax: 04.98.01.80.09
Irène Fumanal, direct line: 04.98.01.80.06 e-mail: irene@grandcros.fr
Skype: irenegpr
Brushing with Sunlight
Monaco / Vence / Villefranche
Italy!
oil on canvas; ix.V; 56 x 78 cms
Goethe's Storm; or, Dawn breaks the dangerous calm of thought...
Goethe's storm? What's he on about?
La Côte d'Azur
The following pictures mark the start of a series devoted to the landscapes and towns of the Côte d'Azur, drawing upon thirty years' acquaintanceship and a dozen years' residence!
oil on canvas; ix.V; 68 x 75 cms
Spring has Sprung on the road to Italy past Monte Carlo!
oil on canvas; x.V; 65 x 105 cms
Vence: les feuilles d'autonne...
oil on canvas; x.V; 68 x 96 cms
Vence ensoleillée, le soir...
oil on canvas; xi.V; 60 x 81 cms
Vence, par la fumée des feux d'automne...
oil on canvas; xi.V; 73 x 116 cms
Villefranche, contre-jour, soleil brillant...
Three Dark Chiantis
Despite the levity that Tuscany acquires in blossom-time, a fluttersome joyfulness like birdsong that is so endlessly attractive, the pointy quality of the hillocks and the taut dimensiuons of the valleys can make it as well, for want of a better word, oppressive. I have tried to express this in a small set of sunsets that have in mind the brooding excitement and sudden shafts of unexpected hue that you may just be lucky enough to find in old Chianti!
all: oil on canvas; 30 x 30 cms
Fleurs du Bien
all: oil on canvas; xi.V; 51 x 51 cms
all: oil on canvas; xi.V; 30 x 30 cms
oil on canvas; xi.V; 100 x 20 cms
Three Brush-Bagatelles
The following three canvases measure 70cms square to the edge.
They were done as part of an on-going project for a restaurant décor in the South of France, with the intention of using very free, almost blotchy brushstrokes that could then be transferred graphically to the style & technique appropriate to an entire wall panel five times the size...
left: Hot Dawn over Menton
middle: Spring-blossom Evening in Tuscany
right: Sundowner-time, overlooking Nice
Goethe's Storm
In May 1787, Goethe found himself returning from Sicily to Naples; his ship was a slightly cramped French merchant vessel he had not greatly wished to have to take; moreover, departure from Messina had been delayed, though his flirty companion Kniep was happy enough to have more time with some new girlfriends. Mostly unwell on the first two days of the voyage, Goethe sustained himself happily on bread and wine. Amidst a restless set of passengers he and Kniep were fully content with the beauty of the setting sun. Night fell as Capri appeared in view.
So enraptured by the sights, they failed at first to notice that the ship was becalmed in that current which not only surrounds Capri like a halo but which, they soon learned, like an impercetible whirlpool, slowly draws ships to their destruction against the great cliffs. It is still a danger for unpowered vessels and their panicsome ship found itself in just such a timeless predicament. An attempt by a handful of men in the pinnacle to tug the ship, failed. Before retiring below Goethe gave a short but high-toned pep-talk to silence the wailing passengers. Crew and passengers were equipped with poles so that they might fend off the cliff, as they drifted ever closer to their doom and could hear islanders above seemingly already anticipating a goodly haul of booty from the wreck. At the last moment a slightest breeze arrived and the ship was able to escape. Next morning Capri was but a shadow on the horizon behind them.
Once ashore, the sweep of Neapolitan life was as if nothing like a calm could be imagined. Their luggage disappeared with porters — safely, as it happened, but the painter Kniep kept his portfolio under his arm, so that at least that would be saved if the porters robbed them of all the sea had spared.
Often I have tried to paint the unique, enchanting and unforgettable richness of calm that I found on Capri, but this story of Goethe nearly shipwrecked there by calm adds, I think, a spice to the recipie.