House Portrait Dossier:
The Great Menton Tryptich
A major commission for a villa overlooking the Italian border with France, at Menton... installed on facing walls of a stair-well!
oil on three canvases; 1.2 x 1.2m, 2.5 x 0.8m, 1.5 x 2.0m; ii/iv.2003
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The Bay at Menton
- was commissioned to 'expand' the spaceousness as you descend a stairwell towards a sitting room and terrace with vast views out across the bay at Menton...
Looking
down the stairs...
and
back up...
The main elements were
a) to show the view as if through the walls and thus to 'deny' the walls' presence;
b) to have the picture on both walls, and
c) on at least three canvases.
So, off I
went to sketch the walls and the view.
The SketchBook
Early pages of the sketchbook - all here shown in order of execution - warm up with details and squiggles...
until a double-page-spread theme emerges, of the view east to Italy, that starts to overlap with the aspect to the west, all seen from slightly different angles...
Also, the view down into the garden - complete with bonfire at one time that afternoon - to emphasise the steep slope the villa commands...
Now came the time to address how these elements of angles of view would work on the walls in question...
- which led to a pattern marked simply, "Yes!"
By now the chief elements were settled and there followed a number of sketches done from memory, in Grout's (smelly) ink, on double-page spreads to conclude the sketchbook.
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The Tryptich!
The resulting three canvases were installed in May 2003...
click on left half for East wall and on the right for the West...
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