Story of a Painting 2007-2023

Cami de Ronda, 2023 started out as a drawing I made in 2007. Wandering along the coastal path on the Costa Brava I had often passed by this view. The broken and dying pine tree lurching towards the sea had appealed to me as its complicated silhouette was thrown against the cobalt blue backdrop of the early evening sea. The track for launching a boat that emerged from a tunnel out of sight below the path and then running out and submerging in the water was also powerful element.

After the initial drawing in 2007 I thought nothing more about this view until early 2023. I was looking through my files of drawings for ideas for paintings for an exhibition that I was preparing for in June 2023 at the Catto Gallery in Hampstead NW3. The view seemed to have potential.

Talking of ‘files’ I seem to have done enormous amounts of research for studio paintings in Spain, Italy, Miami, Tenerife to name a few. I have drawings dating back to the 80’s that suggest paintings that as yet, haven’t made it to canvas for one reason or another.

I went back to Spain and discovered the tree had gone. I was disappointed but at least I had my initial drawing. I sat and made newer drawings. Back in the studio in Brighton I began. The painting emerged slowly from all the studies and it became apparent that there should be a figure in there somewhere. It was a slow process as I was trying to build up the surface and deal with balancing the light of the shadowed foreground and the lighter brighter elements in the rocks on the upper left. In addition to this getting the tree just right proved difficult and I kept redrawing and repainting the upper sections.

Finally, framed in dark oak this painting looked great.

Camí de Ronda Oil on board 131 x 95 cm 2023

Study oil on panel 30 x 24 cm

Auerbach at the Courtauld until 27 May 2024

‘The Charcoal Heads’ opened a few weeks ago at the Courtauld gallery in London. The exhibition is a small presentation of a series of large-scale drawings in charcoal by Frank Auerbach made during his early years as an artist in post-war London.

It’s absolutely worth visiting these works to experience them in the flesh, so to speak, in order to really see the intense level of enquiry and determination to get the image that he was happy with onto the paper. They’re full of corrections, gouges, tears and rubbings that reveal the scars and patches of their making. They are a moving encounter with the models who were so close to him and would continually sit for him during the period.

It’s tempting for me to try to read significance into these images based on what I know about Auerbach and the historical context that they were made in, just after the war in blitzed out London. They’re dark and heavy. They are intense studies. There’s no eye contact with the viewer in any drawing except for the self-portrait image used on the poster. The heads emerge out of the blackness and exist in their space, lost in thought. Or maybe not lost at all? I guess we’ll never know or maybe we don’t even need to know. Powerful stuff. Just great.

“Although we may be stimulated by works of art we make our pictures from living sensations. The aim of painting is this: To capture a raw experience for art.” Auerbach

A show spread over two rooms of 17 drawings and 6 paintings. Until 27 May.

Frank Auerbach Self-portraits in London until 14 July

‘I didn’t find actual formal components of my head all that interesting when I was younger, smoother and less frazzled. Now that I’ve got bags under my eyes, things are sagging and so on, there’s more material to work with.’ - Frank Auerbach

There’s a unique show of 20 self-portraits by Frank Auerbach currently on at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert gallery in St.James’ London until 14 July.

If you like scratches, scribbles, dry brush marks, colour, erasing and layered gestural brushstrokes then this is for you. For me this is no disappointment and as ever seeing it in reality exceeds anything in a photograph.

Manifestations of life. “Sensations…congealed…cohered…out of the battle into being…”

#auerbach #frankauerbach #selfportraits #painting #vilarrubi #julianvilarrubi #inspiration

Soutine | Kossoff in Hastings

In the top rank of my all time favourite painters is Chaim Soutine who died in 1943, aged 50. Amazingly, Hastings Contemporary in East Sussex have curated a show of Soutine paintings paired up with work by Leon Kossoff on right now and running to September 2023.

I would never have predicted this could happen outside London but it has and it is colossal. If you are turned on by the possibilities of oil paint in portraiture and landscape painting then this is a must see.

This show has quite rightly been gathering some excellent reviews in the quality papers and journals. Waldemar Januszczak | The Sunday Times review | 30.04.23 wrote Soutine “was to painting what Lionel Messi is to football or Mohammed Ali was to boxing: a high speed perfectionist of remarkable dexterity.”

I remember the first time I saw a Soutine. It was a a visual punch 🤛 in the gut similar to the first time I saw a Frank Auerbach painting used as the artwork for the cover of Japan’s Oil on Canvas album (which someone had casually left lying around in the studios where I did an art foundation course in 1983).

The first Soutine I saw was in the Tate Gallery collection (as it was known then) on a visit in the early 80’s. It was Landscape at Céret, oil on canvas 56 x 84 cm 1920-21. The Tate have 3 great paintings by Soutine.

The tate.org.uk site writes…

‘Soutine’s handling of paint conveys an agitated, frenetic quality, suggesting a confrontation with the earthy forces of nature.’

‘Inspired by classic painting in the European tradition, exemplified by the works of Rembrandt, Chardin and Courbet, Soutine developed an individual style more concerned with shape, color, and texture than representation, which served as a bridge between more traditional approaches and the developing form of Abstract Expressionism.’

I went on to write my final year dissertation on Soutine at university for my fine art degree. As part of my research I went to the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris to absorb their collection of his work and then visited and stayed in Céret itself on a soak up the vibe and follow in the footsteps mission.

I have never seen so many quality paintings by Soutine gathered in one place. This, I am sure will not happen again for a very long time. Feast your eyes and senses.

The show runs to 24 September 2023. Read the reviews 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ (The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, Studio International) and see, probably a once in a lifetime outstanding show.

Soutine (1893-1943)

Leon Kossoff (1926-2019)

@_art_on_sea

#soutine #chaimsoutine #ceret #landscapepainting #dekooning #auerbach #rembrandt #goya #chardin #bacon #painting #landscapepainter #painter #inspiration @tate @museeorangerie #oiloncanvas #japan #courbet #gustavecourbet #leonkossoff #hastingscontemporary #soutinekossoff

Soutine

Groupe d’arbes. Oil on canvas 1922 Le petit pâtissier Oil on canvas C 1927

Leon Kossoff

Sally in an Armchair No.1 oil on board Christ Church, Spitalfields 1989

Pass the peas

Josh Lilley Gallery in central London has, until today been showing an exhibition devoted to Patrick Caulfield called ‘Pass the Peas’.

I am a long time fan of Caulfield’s work. I have always loved the seemingly simplistic detachment and matter of factness of his images, the compositions, colour choices, the editing of content and the meticulous process in the execution.

Pass the Peas “comprises works on paper, paintings and sketchbooks from his archive, together with a selection of significant paintings loaned from important collections within the UK. The presentation considers the shaping of an artist whose work so often played with reality and illusion, and for whom restraint, conceptually and formally, was fundamental to practice. As an artist with a renowned ability to reconcile society and solitude, this intimate reappraisal reflects on how Caulfield’s philosophy and approach guided his creative methodology and output; providing a deeper understanding of Caulfield’s subconscious, his energy, and his sense of humour as a painter of modernity.”

“The exhibition’s title, Pass the Peas, comes from a 1968 Western film The Stalking Moon where Gregory Peck’s character considers how the mundane can simultaneously be extraordinary, and how seemingly insignificant details function to punctuate our existence. In Caulfield’s work, we see tools or vessels to elicit a certain feeling – a vase, a wine glass, a room as a site of comfort or of containment. Whilst posing as simple, functional devices, they are much more than the sum of their parts – details which open up worlds of aspiration and inspiration. It is these details, motifs and symbols which are highlighted in the remarkable archival works.” Josh Lilley website

Patrick Caulfield 1936- 2005

Images below by Caulfield

Top: Home (design for Formica mural) ink on paper and collage 96.5 x 93 cm

Bottom: Untitled (pint of Guiness) 22.8 x 30 cm

L’arbe de Vence France

I was curious to see what might have become of Soutine’s L’arbe de Vence, an oil painting he made in 1929. It’s one of my favourite Soutine paintings. It was only when I saw it at the exhibition Soutine|Kossoff recently at Hastings Contemporary that I wondered how the actual tree was faring these days.

“According to legend, this ash tree was planted in 1538 on the orders of Francis I of France, to thank the citizens of Vence for hosting his delegation during negotiations for the Treaty of Nice with Charles V of Spain. A tourist attraction in Soutine's day as now, the venerable ash has … a strikingly individual character. As with his portraits of this period, he shows us an immediately recognizable likeness, the branches dark against vivid blue. Painterly experiment is mostly confined to the trunk of the tree, across which we see a play of blue, yellow and red, while the circular bench below is a lustrous Soutine green.” Notes from Hastings Contemporary wall panel at the exhibition Soutine|Kossoff. The painting comes from a private collection.

Looks like it’s doing very well. The bench has gone though.

Photo on left courtesy of ©️Google 2023

The path to the sea, Costa Brava, Spain

I’m working towards a show of paintings later this year (details to follow) and have been focusing on some of the material I gathered last summer on the Costa Brava in Spain. One particular view is of a path down to the rocks discovered by accident even though I’ve been near here many times before. I loved the light and the colours but also the way as you approach the distant obscured scene begins to reveal itself. The images are my on-site responses that will inform my studio-based paintings of this view.

Mixed media A3

Mixed media A2

Hampstead heath commission

Hampstead Heath and I go back to the late 80’s. I’d often go there for a blast of air after the clutter, noise and confinement of Camden Town, where I lived in those days. The Heath is great for views, for swims, walks or picnics. Lots of things happen there.

Over the years I’ve walked, drawn and painted Hampstead Heath many times. A favourite view is of the entrance to the Heath from South End Green. Standing across the road from the train station looking over to the avenue of trees invitingly sweeping you in is a view I love and I’ve worked with quite a few times. I once did an enormous blue winter version of the trees and that is now in a Swiss collection.

I have just completed and delivered a private commission of this very view that measures 34” x 48”.

If you are interested in discussing a commission of a particular place please contact me via the email link in the ‘Contact’ page of this site.

Bowie and Auerbach

We’ve been lucky this year for exhibitions of Frank Auerbach’s drawings, prints and paintings. There was an excellent show at Newlands House Gallery in Petworth ‘Frank Auerbach: Unseen’ that explored the evolution of his practice with a collection of over 65 works.

There are some crackers, including a new self-portrait painting from last year in the current exhibition at Gagosian in Mayfair ‘Friends and Relations’ running to 28 Jan 23.

Still on, just, is the superb show ‘The Sitters’ at Piano Nobile in Portland Road, Holland Park W11 until 16 December.

For a minute I had entertained the notion of not going to see this one. I’ve been looking at Auerbach for 40 years, travelling from the north to London to see exhibitions many times. Perhaps I felt I knew his work? Did I really need to see more? In addition to that Holland Park’s off my beaten track when I’m in London. However, I knew that was ridiculous and of course I went. I’d walk a long way just to see one Auerbach.

This exhibition, and I had it all completely to myself, reminded me, and I need reminding often that although painting can be a pain to produce, it is difficult, maybe not even enjoyable, certainly not relaxing, it reminded me that paint has the ability, sometimes of transcending it’s basic state of matter and can excite and engage on a profound level.

I hadn’t seen many of these works as they were from private collections so that added to the experience and this show includes several incredible self-portrait drawings.

One of the paintings in this show, illustrated below used to belong to David Bowie. In 1998 Bowie told the New York Times, "My God, yeah - I want to sound like that looks," in response to the work of Auerbach.

‘Somebody I like very much indeed is Frank Auerbach. I think there are some mornings that if we hit each other a certain way - myself and a portrait by Auerbach - the work can magnify the kind of depression I'm going through. It will give spiritual weight to my angst. Some mornings I'll look at it and go, "Oh, God, yeah! I know!" But that same painting, on a different day, can produce in me an incredible feeling of the triumph of trying to express myself as an artist. I can look at it and say, "My God, yeah! I want to sound like that looks." I find his kind of bas-relief way of painting extraordinary. Sometimes I'm not really sure if I'm dealing with sculpture or painting. Plus, I've always been a huge David Bomberg fan. I love that particular school…’ (David Bowie, Interview with Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times, 14th June 1998).

I love the idea of Bowie, enjoying his first coffee of the day, standing bleary-eyed in his dressing gown, on whatever floor of his high-rise apartment in Manhattan, looking at and contemplating his Auerbach. Those oozy blobs of colour, the squiggles and deep crevices of paint almost about to slide off the surface are the triumphant result of so many things. The image appears suddenly as a beautiful chaos that makes sense, every element playing its part in support of the whole.

Frank Auerbach Head of Gerda Boehm

oil on board 44.5 by 37cm. 1965.

Detail of Head of Gerda Boehm

The lovErs

My Saturday afternoon session this week (26th) @sussexcountyartsclub will be extended for an hour + I will have two models posing for two long poses.

The theme is ´The Lovers.´

The session runs 3-6 pm + costs £12.

No advance booking so please arrive early to get a spot.

LuCian Freud centenary

There’s probably never been a better time to really get to grips with Lucian Freud’s work in the flesh than now. In London there are currently a number of shows dedicated to his work, or facets of it, brought together from both museums and private collections to celebrate the centenary of his birth, thus enabling you to complete your own accurate survey of his oeuvre. Many of these exhibitions are in commercial galleries and so are free to visit.

For me he’s fascinating for his meticulous approach, in all its many ways, to making work. For example, how is a painting put together? Get up really close to one of the paintings and actually see the brushwork and how it’s been organised. Quite astonishing. 👀 This level of detail is missed through reproduction.

Above: My pen drawing of Freud’s “Double Portrait,” (1985-86, oil on canvas) and “Pregnant Girl” 1960-61.

Links to shows currently showing Lucian Freud work: @nationalgallery @freudmuseum @gardenmuseum @gagosian @ordovas @hazlitthollandhibbert

58 Trees

Recently I was staying on the Costa Brava, a coastal region of Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, extending for about 120 km along the Mediterranean Sea from the French border at Port-Bou to the resort of Blanes, which is north of Barcelona.

I had never intended to draw the view you see above but after I saw it I couldn’t stop myself. I have been past here many times before, probably a hundred and I have never noticed this incredible arrangement of three or four rows of trees stretching out parallel alongside the road with enticing glimpses of the sea and beach and distant rocks.

I do have a thing for verticality in my picture-making and a thing for trees so I suppose it was inevitable. I would have found it difficult to leave the area knowing I hadn’t drawn it. To appease myself I agreed I’d do just one A3 drawing in pen of a small section of the whole spread. The first drawing I did was the second one in from the right side in the photo above. It took about 2 hours.

I thought that might be it but I found myself back there the next day at the same time (5.30 pm), and then the next day and the next until I had a good wide view of 58 trees in total. It was a bit tricky doing the drawings. I had to stand the whole time and balance my sketchbook on the very thin edge of the wall in front of me with the traffic careering down the hill right behind me. Sometimes a car would slow down to see what I might be fussing over. The driver would be sitting up in the seat craning their neck trying to see what I could whilst keeping an eye on the road. Difficult.

With such a complex view it’s a delicate balancing act working out the composition. I find it’s better to approximate what might go into the drawing, get started, and conduct it as it goes. For me too much thinking and planning erodes the momentum. It’s risky as it means if the scaling is wrong to begin with then either you’ll miss some things out as they don’t make it into the sheet of paper or everything is too small and so there’s too much to draw to fill the sheet. Because it’s a pen drawing I couldn’t erase anything. All mistakes have to be amalgamated.

I met all the local neighbours as they passed. They liked it.

• Maybe there’s a painting in there? What do you think? The colours are just amazing too, like nothing you will ever see in the light of England. England has it’s own special light.

Hauser & Wirth Menorca

Last week I found myself near Mahon on the Balearic Island of Menorca. Hauser and Wirth Menorca is a stunning gallery and education centre with a cantina in the natural setting of Illa del Rei, an island in Mahon harbour.

H&W run a ferry out and back from the island. You need to book online. The current exhibition is Rashid Johnson ‘Sodade’ running to 13 Nov.

This is a must do visit. Really! Apart from the exhibition you can have a ramble about the island and intermingle with the outdoor sculpture trail featuring work by Chillida, Bourgeois and Miró. When it gets a bit tiring and hot there’s the cantina to take the edge off. Perfect, no?

Sussex square linocut series

I’m in the process of making a new series of prints based on the architecture of Brighton. I’ve been a little bit lax with this particular cut of Sussex Square. I cut the lino in 1998 and I’ve only just recently started to print from it properly. Each print is hand printed so they’re all in different colour formats yet using the same piece of lino. There will be a max of 25 prints in the run and they are printed to order, numbered, signed and mounted.

A New View of Brighton

This mixed exhibition will run for three more days and end on Sunday the 15th. May at 6 pm. Seven artists present work based on the city of Brighton itself. My work includes two drawings of the stunning Adelaide Crescent on Hove seafront, a Sussex Square linocut, a St. Peter’s Church painting, and a pen and ink drawing of the view from Albion Hill, probably the steepest hill in Brighton.

The private view is on Saturday the 14th. in the afternoon. All welcome.

In the Presence of a Tumultuous Genius

The art critic and presenter Waldemar Januszczak called him ‘a tumultuous genius.’ His nickname was ‘Il Furioso.’ Walk around 53 churches or other institutions in Venice and you will find at least one Tintoretto in each. You’ll quickly understand the labels that have been attached to him.

I finally made it, for the first time, to Venice last week and saw something I have waited a very long time to see: the Scuola Grande di San Rocco with the magnificent cycle of paintings by Tintoretto that it houses. I first fell for Tintoretto (1518-1594, Venice), who appeals to my artistic sensibility above all others, during my second year art history lectures at the University of Newcastle. Perhaps not the slickest and consistent of the Renaissance Mannerist masters he conjures up breathtaking drama with his daringly inventive compositions, clever use of tonal contrasts, colossal scaling, bold exuberant brushstrokes and just plain over the topness. It’s an exciting journey that leaves me a bit breathless and giddy.

From Wikipedia… In 1564 the painter Tintoretto was commissioned to provide paintings for the Scuola, and his most renowned works are to be found in the Sala dell'Albergo and the Sala Superiore. All the works in the building are by him, or his assistants, including his son Domenico: they were executed between 1564 and 1587. Works in the Sala Terra are in homage to the Virgin Mary, and concentrate on episodes from her life. In the Sala Superiore, works on the ceiling are from the Old Testament, and on the walls from the New Testament. Together, they show the biblical story from Fall to Redemption.

Dying sunflower

When I used to go to Italy on a regular basis I would try to go late summer to catch the fields of sunflowers just before they were harvested. I spent a lot of time moving around the landscape looking for the best dying fields. This studio painting is the result of two drawings I made in a field in August 1999. It was so hot the ground around me was cracking with crevices inches wide.

Umbrian Fields

I have made quite a few paintings of Umbrian fields over the years. Theré’s something quite special about sitting in a field of dying sunflowers drawing and painting them. At the moment I have a few studio-based paintings of this subject in progress. Hopefully, there will be a complete series of these sometime later this year. I am currently wrangling with the paint, always oil. The mysteries and beauties of oil paint take quite a bit of coaxing to get them to reveal themselves. Luckily for me I know they exist.

A human response

Drifting aimlessly through Louisiana Museum of Modern Art on Saturday I came across this wide charcoal drawing by David Hockney. This stunning museum had so far been such a powerful experience in itself as a space displaying art in a landscape setting that it really got me thinking about contexts for display. If the art is so set within nature then which has the more powerful effect? Does the nature always blow the art away or do they compliment each other?

I hadn’t expected to see the Hockney drawing at all so it was a pleasant surprise. I have always been drawn to Hockney’s thoughts on art, painting, drawing and experience. His book Hockney on Hockney (publ. 1976) remains one of my favourites on his creative process, the influences and inspirations behind his work and how, from that early period, the work came about. It’s an easy read too as he’s such a great communicator. I really recommend it. I find his ideas on perception, the depiction of space and his attempts to render these on a flat static surface fascinating. I have similar concerns and it’s the same questions that keep niggling away at you provoking you to do more.

I like the wall panel by this drawing and it echoed what I had been thinking about so I shall quote some of it here…

”… the artist generously donated the preparatory sketch…. Built up of myriad line fragments and bundles of hatchings, it is clear how the artist captures just exactly enough of his subject to bring out its pictorial potential. Nature cannot be surpassed, but nor is that the task of art, according to Hockney. Rather, art must elicit a human response; this has been its mission throughout history. Matisse and Picasso, artists whom Hockney holds in high esteem, also worked on the basis of this idea”.

Charcoal Drawing for “A Closer Grand Canyon’, 1988. Charcoal on paper. Wide, about 2.5 metres.

Delaunay/Valadon

I have come to Copenhagen to see two exhibitions of work by pioneering 20th. century female artists at two stunning galleries: Sonia Delaunay at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and Suzanne Valadon Artist, Model, Rebel at the Glyptoteket.

‘From a childhood marked by poverty to a career as a popular artist’s model, French artist Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) defied the odds to become a successful painter.

She challenged the social norms of her time to assert her independence, becoming the first self-taught woman to exhibit at Salon de la Nationale des Beaux Arts. Valadon defied her background in terms of class, gender and lifestyle, breaking new ground with her uncompromising portraits and nudes.

It is more than a century since Valadon painted her unapologetic portraits of self-assured women with strong, curvaceous bodies. The Glyptotek’s exhibition Suzanne Valadon – model, painter, rebel presents the contribution the artist made to European art at the beginning of the 20th century with a focus on her agency and business acumen. With their dark hallmark contours and bright colours, Valadon’s works demonstrate wit and boldness in grappling with themes and issues that continue to provoke debate today: female desire, the conflicts of marriage and motherhood, and the way women themselves experience their bodies.’ Glyptoteket exhibition introduction.

‘Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) was at the same time a painter, designer, and entrepreneur. She ranks among the most original and fascinating voices of modernism.

When Sonia Delaunay entered a Parisian dance hall in 1913 wearing a collage-like dress that resembled a colorful, cubist painting, it was a statement that attracted attention. It made an impression in the avant-garde environment of the time. Here, the visual art came strolling out of the painting’s frame and directly into the modern, dynamic everyday life.

Right there Delaunay manifested her artistic program and trademark: it was not just about modernizing the visual arts but the culture in a much broader sense.’ Louisiana Modern Art Museum exhibition introduction.