A LETTER FROM VINCENT VAN GOGH

After art school in Antwerp and before the masterworks of Arles (whence many of his letters), Vincent van Gogh lived in Paris. This shows the courtyard of his second Paris residence (shared with his art-dealer brother Theo), at 54 rue Lepic, Montmartre. Here I have used variations on the vertical to enhance the structural interest of the composition; the gaps in the railings and gate are intended to further open out the scene.

(Pencil and watercolour - 2009)

ALOXE-CORTON - BURGUNDY

This is based on a photo I took in 1981. Here, the bluer tones in the background help convey the depth of the perspective. I revisited this celebrated wine-growing village in July 2008: the pollarded trees have grown out more and consequently there is not such a clear, and dramatic, view back to the church. (Aloxe is just north of Beaune, on the Dijon road.) 

(Acrylic - 2008)

ARD

È

This is a peaceful hamlet off the D533 west of Desaignes. I was privileged to stay there in October 2006. The emerging autumnal colours - and powerful liqueur Châtaigne - were striking! 

(Acrylic - 2008)

In this painting, of a view from L’Hermet in the Ardèche, I worked on variations of the triangle to help underpin the composition. To convey a contrast between proximity and distance, I have saved the strongest tones for the foreground. 

(Acrylic - 2008)

AT THE FISHING STATION, EASTBOURNE 

This is the third time I painted this scene from the Eastbourne shoreline - this version in 2010 is in Acrylic.

The two other paintings were in watercolour. The second of these is set out below and was completed in 2008. It was bought at a Society of Eastbourne Artists exhibition by a couple from Nottinghamshire who thought it had captured the scene’s unique atmosphere. 

(Acrylic - 2010)

(Watercolour - 2008)

AU LAPIN AGILE(‘Nimble Rabbit’) CABARET, MONTMARTRE

Founded by the 19th century French caricaturist André Gill (hence ‘Lapin Agile’), this celebrated cabaret was the haunt of many artists, including Picasso and Modigliani. Famous international visitors to the Lapin Agile included writer Ernest Hemingway, actress Vivien Leigh, and Charlie Chaplin. I adapted two photographs for this painting, one a daytime scene, the other a very blurred night shot.

 (Acrylic - 2007)

AU LAPIN AGILE CABARET, MONTMARTRE(2006)

This remains one of the most celebrated cabaret in the whole of France. Here, Aristide Bruand, featured in Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters, regaled his audience with earthy chansons and insults. In the background of the first of these two acrylics is the house where Renoir completed A Ball at The Moulin de la Galette (1876).

AUXERRE

This watercolour was a commission.  It’s based on two photographs (the  buildings on the left are actually beyond the archway) that I took while on a wine tour in 1983. Auxerre, with its magnificent Gothic architecture, is mid-way between  Paris and Dijon, with the winegrowing region of Chablis nearby. 

(Watercolour - 1987)

AUXEY-DURESSES, BURGUNDY 

In 1990 I substantially revised this oil painting, which now hangs in Woking College. The present image shows it as it was in 1982, though the view is based on a monochrome photo I had taken during a family holiday six years earlier. Auxey-Duresses, on the D973 after Volnay and Monthélie, produces prestigious wines, both red and white. 

(Oil - 1982 & 1990)

BARTON-ON-SEA, HAMPSHIRE 

This was painted rapidly, better to convey the rising power of sea and sky, with a strong wind to fight. Airborne is a powered paraglider (sadly, not a pterosaur or mythic Orc!).

(Acrylic - 2006)

BERWICK STREET MARKET, SOHO 

Given the degree of detail and the human figures present, this watercolour was a ‘task-and-a-half’! It’s based on a photo I took in 1982, a touch of nostalgia present in the low prices of fruit and veg, also the pound note (RIP) in the lower right hand corner. London’s markets remain some of the most vibrant in the world.

(Watercolour - 1995)

BOULEVARD DU MONTPARNASSE AT NIGHT

The city’s buzz! I chose the names for the shop and restaurant fronts for their connections to the Fin de Siècle art scene in Montparnasse - for example, Mucha (the Czech poster designer); Denis (one of the Nabis, a group of Symbolist artists), and the sculptor Bourdelle, once a pupil of Rodin’s.

(Acrylic - 2007)

BURNING THE STUBBLE, NEAR SANCERRE

Sancerre is famous for its viticulture, but the region also boasts rich wheatfields - here, in the fiery aftermath of an August harvest. A second version of this painting was short listed for the RA Summer Exhibition in 1993, and was also commended by the topographical draftsman Dennis Flanders, RWS, RBA. I liked this scene so much I painted a second copy in 2011 (see Elsewhere in France). 

(Watercolour - 1985)

CATAMARANS, EASTBOURNE

Here, I was intrigued by the sweeping geometry of masts and rigging and by the apparition of the illuminated pier, stretching out like some surreal ocean liner.

 (Watercolour - 2008)

COPY OF 'COTTAGE' BY THERESA STANNARD

This, and the following copy, of In a Warwickshire Byway: Little Milton by Theresa’s father Henry John Sylvester Stannard, were painted for my parents’ home near Lincoln. The Stannards were a celebrated family of painters.

(Watercolours 1992)

EASTBOURNE GARDEN UNDER SNOW

This is part of the back garden of a Victorian house (1878) in De Roos Road. It’s based on a combination of two photographs I took on April 6th 2008 - an unforgettable day’s snowfall in Eastbourne. See also three views of Watts Lane under Snow in my Current Gallery - In and around Eastbourne.

(Acrylic - 2008)

ELEMENTAL LANDSCAPE

This large watercolour grew in my imagination from photos I had taken of Lincoln Cathedral: on the horizon from Bracebridge Heath, and a much closer view used for the detail of the Cathedral. Annie and Brian Connell, who bought this, have been wonderful patrons of mine for the past fifteen years.

(Watercolour - 1995)

FLOWER STUDY

This is the first of two flower paintings commissioned by a fellow-member of Woking’s New Cinema Club. I don’t paint flowers very often, but here I enjoyed building up texture, contour and tone via successive washes of watercolour.

 (Watercolour - 1990)

GIVERNY: THE JAPANESE BRIDGE

This is based on a photo I took in 1994 when on a day trip from Pont Audemer in Normandy to Giverny and Versailles and was painted for the Eastbourne Festival, April 2009. A photographic image of this painting featured in the ‘Highly Commended’ section of an exhibition at the Bankside Gallery, London, in the same year. There are four other paintings of Giverny, three in my current gallery and one (‘Grande Allée’)  below.  Except for the ‘Grande Allée’, which was largely completed in France, they were also painted for the Eastbourne Festival.

(Acrylic - 2009)

HMS DEFENCE

This was a commission from a specialist collector of maritime art. HMS Defence was an armoured cruiser sunk at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Here the ship is seen passing the Seven Sisters off the Sussex coast.

(Watercolour - 2011)

LAMARCK- CAULAINCOURT AT NIGHT

This Métro station is one stop up from Abbesses (the stop for Rue Lepic - see below) and is on the other side of the ‘Butte’ of Montmartre. Climb the steps for the Lapin Agile!

(Acrylic - 2011)

LE POLLET, DIEPPE

This watercolour preceded the drawing (see Current Gallery) that was shown at the Centre Culturel de la Tourette, Tournon, in August 2008. The characterful architecture, atmospheric light and shade and female figure setting out for the town all help to evoke the curiosity of this scene.

(Watercolour - 2008)

LE PONT-D’ARC, ARDECHE

One of nature’s most dramatic river landscapes, Le Pont-d’Arc in the southern Ardèche lends itself to a broad, painterly treatment. I enjoyed working the colour into this painting, especially when combining several colours on the brush at once.

(Acrylic - 2008)

LINCOLN CATHEDRAL WITH TENNYSON’S STATUE

This was a submission for Lincoln Cathedral’s Christmas Card that year. In the event, a Turner was chosen (JMW rather than Ike or Tina!).

(Watercolour - 1992)

MONET'S GARDEN, GIVERNY

This shows the Grande Allée leading away from Monet’s house and towards the Japanese Garden. I sought to create an intense luminosity by mixing white with yellows, greens, blues and reds. The dark greens of the overhangs and foreground shrubbery are designed to enhance the sense of entering a corridor of light.

(Acrylic - 2008)

MUSCAT GRAPES, ARDECHE

A part-abstraction from a hedgerow encountered on the same walk that produced The Cat (see  below), this watercolour was sold at the Tournon expo (see reference to Le Pollet drawing, in Current Gallery).

(Watercolour - 2008)

PALAIS DU LUXEMBOURG

In the late 19th Century, the museum here housed contemporary art, i.e. works not considered suitable for the Louvre. In the Second World War, the Palais du Luxembourg was the Lutwaffe’s HQ in Occupied Paris.

(Watercolour - 2010)

 PHOEBE

This drawing of the family’s pet Great Dane was a commission from the designer of my website.

(Pencil - 2010)

PLACE DE CLICHY, PARIS (1999/2000)

I love the cacophony of city streets at night and seek to transcribe its sound when I paint them. This acrylic, and the watercolour below are different views of the Place de Clichy, a favourite haunt of artists and intellectuals. In the left background is the Lycée Jules Ferry, opened by President Poincaré in 1913. 

(Acrylic - 1999)

(Watercolour - 2000)

PLACE DU TERTRE, MONTMARTRE

 (Acrylic - 2010)

RUE LEPIC: TAKE FIVE

(Acrylic - 2011)

SARLAT IN THE DORDOGNE, AQUITAINE (1987)

It’s fun to experiment with different approaches, and here I used a more illustrative technique that selects quirky details of a busy market square.

(ink and watercolour - 1987)

ST. IVES, CORNWALL

A picture can sometimes be said to be a creative synthesis of opposites (here, for example, rest and animation), passing through a succession of planes from foreground to background. In this painting I brought together elements from several photographs taken on that spring afternoon.

(Acrylic - 2006)

ST.-FELICIEN, ARDECHE

I created this watercolour from two photos I took one sleepy Sunday afternoon in July 2008. The use of the second photo meant I could show the picturesque narrow street through the archway. As with 'Muscat Grapes' above, this sold at Tournon. The traveller will not regret a visit to Tournon, and just across the river lies Tain L’Hermitage, a key centre for the prestigious wines of the Northern Rhône.

(Watercolour - 2008)

STILL LIFE ABSTRACTION

In the ‘70s and ‘80s I produced a lot more experimental pieces! This one, in Indian inks and wax, has - with hindsight - an element of homage to Cézanne and Matisse.

(Indian inks and wax - 1982)

STILL LIFE WITH WEDGWOOD PLATE

I hope to be painting more ‘still life’ in the future! The Wedgwood plate seen here is a family heirloom. I enjoyed developing the reds in this small watercolour, which sold at a Woking Society of Arts exhibition.

(Watercolour - 1996)

SUNSET AT BIRLING GAP

A commission, here is the second of three versions of this scene. I have used the tonal power of acrylic paint to express the drama of a setting sun and its transformation of sand and sky.

(Acrylic - 2007)

THE ARCHWAY, ANNECY

I found this archetypal view on a day trip to Annecy while on a French language course in 1975 at Grenoble University. To me, this type of subject is immensely appealing: dramatic light and shade, richly-coloured roofs and intriguingly-textured walls.

(Acrylic - 2008)

THE BATEAU LAVOIR

It was in 1904 that Pablo Picasso moved into a studio in the Bateau Lavoir, located in Montmartre’s Place Emile Goudeau. Through experimental paintings such as Les demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), he began - with his avant-garde colleague Georges Braque - the Cubist revolution. My watercolour was shown in 1983 at The Reid Gallery in Guildford, Surrey. 

(Watercolour - 1981)

Again a synthesis, with the seated lovers on the right, full house elevation at rear, and foreground Bohemian (originally conventionally-dressed!) all originating in different photos I took on the same day in 1989. The Bateau Lavoir was a crucible of  avant-garde art.

(Watercolour - 2008)

THE BEGIJNHOF, AMSTERDAM

This watercolour sold at an exhibition mounted in Woking to coincide with the play ‘Vincent in Brixton’, which was then on tour. During his (subsequently abandoned) training for the priesthood, Vincent van Gogh attended the Begijnhof’s English Church (Engelse Kerk), seen on the extreme right.

(Watercolour - 2002)

THE CAT

I noticed this cat as it kept watch over an old shed in the hamlet of L’Hermet (see current gallery). I like to think that the painting symbolises order (cat) over chaos (shed).

(Watercolour - 2008)

THE FRUGAL REPAST

The Frugal Repast is one of the iconic images from Picasso’s Blue Period. Using Edding pens, I drew two versions of Picasso’s etching, one in brown, the other in blue. The task (a commission) was difficult, but it proved a fulfilling challenge.

(Pen - 1992, Copy of Picasso - 1904)

THE LONG MAN, WILMINGTON, EASTBOURNE

This is from a synthesis of four photographs that I took one late autumn day. Both in scale and in movement I sought to underline the contrast between human figures, horse and chalk figure. The Long Man himself is 235 feet tall but his origins are uncertain - some say New Stone Age, others 18th Century!

(Acrylic - 2007)

THE PLACE PIGALLE AT NIGHT

As with ‘Burning the Stubble’ (above), this was short listed for the 1993 RA Summer Exhibition. It represents the kind of highly detailed work I was doing at that time. The building that housed the ‘Narcisse’ nightclub seen in this painting was demolished some years ago, and now a deli, it became for a time a restaurant and jazz club. Its name, Nouvelle-Athènes, after the Impressionist rendezvous that had once stood there, paid homage to the past.

(Watercolour - 1992)

THE VILLAGE, MEADS

These gardens and allotments are in the middle of a square of cottages built for workers in 1894, during the reign of Queen Victoria.

(Acrylic - 2008)

TILBERTHWAITE, THE LAKE DISTRICT

This watercolour is based on a photo I took while on holiday in 1985 with my parents, who nearly forty years before had stayed at nearby Tilberthwaite Farm. The watercolour shown here is my fourth painting of ‘Tilberthwaite’; it was given to my mother on her 80th Birthday. This Lakeland scene (the land once belonged to Beatrix Potter) is to be found near Lake Coniston and ‘Brantwood’, the home of Victorian art critic and watercolourist John Ruskin.

(Watercolour - 2000)

UNCOMMON MARKET STALL

This striking stall, in Common Market (EU) colours, was located near Strasbourg Cathedral. I came across it during a ‘European Awareness’ educational visit in 1991. I painted at least three versions of this, one of which sold at ‘Not the Royal Academy’ (Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London).

(Watercolour - 1996)

VENICE, TOWARDS SANTA MARIA DELLA SALUTE

This watercolour was a commission from the Head of English at Woking College. The photograph from which I painted it was rather blurred, though working from blurred (and/or monochrome) photos is a healthy challenge!

 (Watercolour - 1990)

VOLNAY, BURGUNDY

Volnay is celebrated for its fine red wine made from the Pinot Noir grape. This is how the scene looked when I photographed it in 1981, but when I returned in 2008 a satellite dish had been fixed to the balcony and the flowers had walked out in protest!

(Acrylic - 2007)

WOKING PARK, SURREY

This painting, now in France, proves the value of working further on a piece. I added a second advancing line on the path, enhancing the dynamics of the scene; the connecting lines in the branches above the path interweave more fluently, and spots of red and pink by the right-hand conifers add vivid accents to the most shaded part of the picture.

(Acrylic - 2005)