Les Rosbifs!
cette page en
français!
a group show of British artists of Provence,
celebrating the anniversary of the Entente cordiale...
Galerie la Cadrerie, Marseille
14th March to 6th April, 2007
Marseille...
— my first visit!
All executed in pierre noire & varnish on canvas, March 2007. The image in each case continues on all four sides of the canvas, on stretchers 2 cms deep. The sides are illustrated below.
20 x 60 cms
"Estaque-Ville, Estaque-Gare, Estaque-Plage?";
The Railways of l'Estaque and the Bay of Marseille...
20 x 60 cms
Looking back to the Notre Dame de la Garde over the Anse des Auffes...
20 x 60 cms
Looking down the Cap Croisette towards the Île Maire...
20 x 60 cms
Missing the ferry: the Vieux Port and the Hôtel de Ville...
Details of the painted sides of the canvases above
"Estaque-Ville, Estaque-Gare, Estaque-Plage?";
The Railways of l'Estaque and the Bay of Marseille...
Looking back to the Notre Dame de la Garde over the Anse des Auffes...
Looking down the Cap Croisette towards the Île Maire...
Missing the ferry: the Vieux Port and the Hôtel de Ville...
Les Circulations de Marseille...
each 40 x 40 cms
left: Pastis aside from the madness: Place Castellane, N.D. de la Garde beyond...
right: "Toutes directions": pedestrians at the Place de Rome, the Arc de Triomphe beyond...
Details of the painted sides of the canvases above
Castellane
Place de Rome
Bottlescapes...
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Bottlescapes I & II, Homage to Sir Winston Churchill
pierre noire & varnish on canvas; each 60 x 60 cms; March 2007
See http://www.winstonchurchillshop.co.uk/images/big_437(main).jpg for the original painting, reproduced below. A print of the painting is still available.
Churchill's witty, domestic painting — much of the perspective plays on the
presence both of half-bottles and a jeraboam, let alone the size of the cigars —
and did the greatest of men really have a measuring globe on his crème de
menthe? — has always been with me since my parents gave me a print of it for
my 17th birthday.
For the present exhibition in Marseille, in honour of the Entente cordiale and not to overlook the much older Auld Alliance between France and Scotland, I have done my "Bottlescapes" to include iconic mentions of La Tâche (my picture is splats after all), Château Brown, Casanis or Jannot (the most marseillais of pastis) and as in the original, Johnny Walker, champagne (Pol Roger for Churchill, Moët & Chandon for the Entente cordiale) and Cuban cigars; the Bass beer-mat is in honour of the Cubists, who, with Manet, seem to have had this as their favourite beer, and behind it all, a bottle-party-crasher, a can of Irn-Bru, in honour of the Glaswegian pulse of the city of Marseille...
Above: Details of the left, right and top sides of "Bottlescape I".
Below: Details of the left and right sides of "Bottlescape II".
Mediterranean Colours!
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?
oil on canvas; ix.V; 68 x 75 cms
Spring has Sprung on the road to Italy past Monte Carlo!
Three Dark Chiantis
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
Brush-Bagatelles
top left: Hot Dawn over Menton
top right: Sundowner-time, overlooking Nice
below: 2 Spring-blossom Evenings in Tuscany
all: oil on canvas, 70 x 70 cms
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.
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