Tour and Talk at The Open Show 2017 by Academician R. W. Mountjoy
Good afternoon - I’m Robert Mountjoy, one of the academicians and I am going to take you around the exhibition and talk about some of the paintings.
Last week while painting in my studio with the radio on, I heard the comedian Susan Calman talking about her difficulty with understanding art. She confessed this ‘failing’ to an artist friend. The friend advised her to whisk around an exhibition and pick out eight paintings that somehow stand out. Then go back and look at each painting individually and try to work out what it was that made each ‘stand out’. Good advice!
Today I am going to do something similar only I have chosen nine artists showing in this exhibition that I want to talk to you about. I have chosen these nine as they all work in very different ways, showing the range and versatility of SWAc and … I think I know something about them and their work. At the end I may speak about my own work.
1. Jonathon X Coudrille SWAc
‘Metathesis of the Isle of Asylum’
Jonathon is an artist, writer, musician and many more things. He paints in the oil painter’s tradition on canvas and paints very much from life with live models. His style, as you can see is reminiscent of the surrealist Salvidor Dali but his work is often more symbolist than surreal.
Jonathon has described his painting Matathesis of the Isle of Asylum as conflating “the stillness of Bocklin’s famous Isle with the shock of Gericault’s Raft. Asylum seekers and refugees are anything but marauders: rather they are ordinary families trying to survive”.
Arnold Bocklin was a Swiss symbolist artist who live from 1827 - 1901
He painted five versions of Isle of the Dead and each depict a desolate and rocky islet seen across an expanse of dark water. Bocklin gave no meaning to the paintings but did describe them as a ‘dream picture - and aimed to create a scene of stillness’.
In the original, a small rowboat is just arriving at a small harbour on shore. In the bow, facing the gate, is a standing figure clad entirely in white. Just behind the figure is a white object commonly interpreted as a coffin. The tiny islet is dominated by a dense grove of tall, dark cypress trees —associated by long-standing tradition with cemeteries and mourning.
It is thought to invoke the English Cemetary in Florence where the artist’s daughter was buried and is near to where his studio was situated but the source of inspiration for the Isle has never been confirmed
Theodore Gericault a French romantic artist painted the Raft of the Medusa in 1818/19. It depicts the aftermath of the shipwreck of the French Naval frigate Medusa which went aground off the coast of Mauritania a few years before. 147 people initially survived the shipwreck and took to a rapidly constructed raft. Only 15 survived the 13 days adrift. It became a national scandal - partly due to the incompetence of the ship’s captain and the survivors resort to cannibalism. Gericault carried out extensive research and visited survivors.
(Jonathon was present and was put on the spot to talk about his painting and described how the boat in the foreground had initially been painted upright but compositionally this did not work and was repainted to show it upturned.)
2. Anna Grayson
Klimt in the Care Home and the Moaning Geezer.
Anna Grayson is not an academician but is a regular contributor to Open Shows and has also exhibited at the Royal Academy. She recreates the setting of iconic paintings and poses models as the originals. Often she or her artist husband Des are the models. A lot of trouble is taken with the fabrics and other props to echo the stimuli; they are beautifully photographed and digitally printed. Anna’s photographs are not mere copies; underlying the pastiche is often a contemporary message. I was able to talk to Anna about these photographs and I quote from what she told me:
“Moaning Geezer happened by accident in a way as I had the location set up and knew I needed to shoot in the late autumn to get the colour and feel of Tuscany on the Teign Estuary, but then the model couldn't make it. Des had "blocked" for me in a trial shoot and I felt he could do it and add an extra dimension. Because I had done a lot of very careful preparation and knew exactly where to position the chair the actual shoot took little more than ten minutes. I have found ideal locations for several old masters in Devon!”
“The Klimt was shot to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary as I don't go with the minority view some academics express that there is a dark and controlling side to the embrace. Love can be very long-lasting even if the couple concerned are grumpy!! The patchworks are really old ones made by my Belgian Aunt who was, incidentally, a friend of Magritte's*. I was folding them up one day and realised that one was masculine squares and the other softer flowery things, and then the whole thing came to me. The shoot was difficult as I only had ten seconds to run from the camera to that rather difficult pose and the blankets kept falling off!! I hand painted the mount on this one to add to the illusion of the original. Getting the right frame is really important to me - when I hang a whole lot together I like to give the illusion of a public gallery full of old masters with different ages and histories. I usually try to find a frame that is similar to the original.”
It is quite common for artists to copy ‘old masters’ as it is a useful way to develop skills and techniques. Many have taken it further by putting their own ‘twist’ on the work and redrafting the concept behind the work. Recall Duchamp’s Mona Lisa with moustache. Anna is doing something similar through her photographs.
3 John Hurford Hon. SWAc
A Touch of Winter
Jonny has been described as a ‘Psychedelic Artist’. He grew up in North Devon and now works from a studio in sight of the family farm. He took off to see the bright lights of the city in the 1960s and 70s and became involved in the developing psychedelic art and music scene. Although psychedelic substances were not for him he became immersed in the culture and became an influential illustrator for OZ, Gandalf’s Garden and other ‘underground’ publications. He designed vinyl record sleeves and covers for many bands of that period and is still in demand when new groups create work in the psychedelic genre.
I think that the painting shown here is typical of his current work. The vibrant colours are the fundamental component of the genre but he takes this to a new level with his studies of the natural world. His inspiration and subjects come from the surroundings of his rural Devon studio.
In this painting Jonny is embodying autumn with light streaming through thinning trees to bounce around amongst the changing colours. The background has been filled in with bold free brushstrokes to conjure this mood. In the foreground of this painting is a spiraling fungi that Jonny tells me was found in woods in Holland during a visit with his family. The fungi was photographed and the image was used for the main subject of the painting. The lichens on the branch, placed above, were painted from life from a twig found on the farm and the drying cow parsley was brought in from the garden to balance the composition.
Jonny builds his painting around these found objects and admits that paintings rarely go to plan at the first attempt. The subjects of this painting were moved and repainted several times. He frequently paints over or repaints the elements to bring together the composition. What you see is often the last of many attempts to make a picture.
4. Lar Cann SWAc
Treworrick Fields and Dolomite IX
Lar Cann is an academician who is also a member of the Plymouth Group of Artists and the St Ives group.
He paints in a range of mediums but most notably in oils on canvas. The paintings seem initially abstract but in fact are landscape passed and involve close examination of the underlying rock formations. His titles often refer to the geological elements and minerals that were the inspiration; Aragonite, Manganese, Red Oxide and in this case Dolomite.
Dolomite is calcium magnesium carbonate - an off white alkaline rock-forming mineral that is quarried for making cement or for use in ceramics. It often carries other minerals that streak or stain it with raw pigments.
Lar studies the rock faces that are often exposed in the Cornish landscape; specially within the De Lank Quarry near his Cornish Studio. His compositions draw inspiration from the leaching of minerals through the rocks and structure revealed when broken open.
His paintings vary in size and alongside this large painting on canvas there is a smaller one on paper.
5. Nicholas Papatzaneteas SWAc
The Night Coast
Nicholas Papatzaneteas was born in Athens, Greece, and spent several formative childhood years in Australia. He is also a member of the Plymouth Group of Artists.
He paints in oil on canvas and draws his inspiration from landscape - often coastal locations. He lives in Plymouth and so has access to the south Devon and Cornish coast but has also found inspiration in the coastlines of Brittany and Northern Spain.
His work evokes a sense of place and time - to me they conjure up the feelings of rising tides at dawn or dusk. This one evokes waves crashing into a bay in falling light while a headland sinks into darkness. It is figurative but not intensely so - getting close to abstract as it recreates the mood of the moment rather than to faithfully portray topographical features. Nicholas has applied paint with larger brushes and together the texture, colour and tone form a holding form for his response. Like many painters in this genre his work shows the labour of painting; he has worked over and over painting until the intention is achieved.
Expressionist landscape painting is particularly popular right now with many emerging artists working in this genre. But no one does it better than Nicholas.
6. Kate Aggett SWAc
Nature’s Carpet
Kate is an academician who lives and works in East Devon. She has taken her passion for colour, fabrics, textures, the Devon and Cornish coast and countryside and her love of Dartmoor and put them into a melting pot of ideas. The result is totally unique.
Her pictures are small in scale but immensely detailed and intricate. Working with found and sometimes deliberately created material, she builds a landscape picture of often-remarkable realism. This method of working could be described as ‘super collage’ such is the intensity of the approach.
The second landscape shown here include the use of torn hand-made papers to represent the feathering of the clouds in the summer sky. The foreground has been padded with some stitching to portray the waves of rough ground in the moorland scene. It works well and you can sense the effort it would require to tramp out across that rugged terrain.
7. Mary Gillett SWAc
Lost Bridge at Wheal Emma
Mary is a painter and printmaker who lives in West Devon. She has a well-equipped studio where she not only produces her own work but runs courses and work shops.
Her inspiration comes from landscapes that she knows well and evokes memories. Her work depicts senses of time and space.
Her chosen medium is printmaking and often employs etching which involves using acid to eat into a metal plate. The zinc or copper is coated with a thin layer of resin which is scratched through to allow the acid access to the metal. The resulting marks are filled with ink and the surface wiped clean. A special press forces dampened and softened paper down onto the metal sheet and into the grooves where it picks up the ink.
But this print is a collagraph. For those of you not familiar with this method of working it in involves creating a printing plate through a form of collage. Materials are stuck onto a flat piece of material and when dry it is rolled with ink and a piece of paper pressed against it. Card can be used for the base but has a limited lifespan; I suspect that the resulting print you see here has been created on a more substantial sheet of metal or plastic.
While textured material - fabrics - leaves - crumpled paper is often used to build the plate of a collagraph it may not have been employed for this print. I suggest that in this case the glue that usually holds the material to the base has proved sufficient. A thick medium has been painted or dribbled onto the base to form a negative image and it has provided the right amount of relief and take up the ink when the plate is rolled. The medium lends itself to creating strong contrasts and enables the artist to represent the landscape that has significant memories. It successfully recreates the mood of a stand of trees, the undergrowth that swamps the bridge and the dark shadows beneath.
8. Michael Carter SWAc
Remains 1 and 2
Michael photographs seemingly mundane subjects but with a great sense of vision and drama. He often combines the near abstraction of the pioneering photographer Paul Strand with the super-realism of Weston and Adams. Like Adams he has closed down the aperture and slowed the camera speed to create the maximum depth of field. Subsequently we see fine detail from the foreground to the far distance.
Here he has shot a tree that has been pollarded with the stack of truncated limbs stacked like a giant arrow-head pointing at the dismembered trunk. The fence behind the tree slopes up to a corner behind the trunk and this also draws us to this central element. It is beautifully seen and captured.
The second photograph shows us an allotment with the rows of planting streaming away and pointing to the horizon where, just off centre, the trees open slightly to draw us to the world beyond. Again, beautifully seen and captured but it is well worth standing and looking and examining some of the key compositional elements. This view has not been deliberately orchestrated but has been seen, noted and captured.