'The Grand Tour'
Lise Temple &
Roland Weight
Recent Paintings and Drawings from France, Italy and Spain. Following three months painting their way through their dream trip in Europe, Roland and Lise have returned with a swag of fresh ‘en plein air’ paintings and drawings exhibiting at Salon Rouge Gallery from Feb 5 to April 5.
Roland and Lise are South Australian artists who have each won many prestigious art prizes. For Lise; Hans Heysen Art landscape prizes in 2005 and 2007 and for Roland The R. S. of Arts 150th Anniversary First Prize with both finalists many times in the Fleurieu and Water House Art Prizes.
‘Upon their return it was breathtaking to see
canvas after canvas revealing cream arches and alley ways, boldly lime washed
villas, sleepy canals, boat painters in river boats, doorways into other worlds,
orange groves, fields of lavender, rocky outcrops and the Mediterranean,
bringing with it the feel of a softer European light, a colourful palette, and
exciting and immediate mark making. Instead of snap shots, the paintings take
the viewer intimately into their experiences, sensitively and reverently read by
eye and rendered by hand. I am excited about this show. It is fresh and rich. I
am proud to show their work at Salon Rouge.’ Jacqueline Coates of Salon
Rouge Gallery.
Says Roland; ‘Italy meant galleries, coffee and markets, food wine food. We
could see the work of European masters. We talked art, collected ideas, looked
at and tasted food and wine. We painted in Rome, Umbria, Florence, Venice and
Cinque Terra. We met and painted with other artists. We swam in the
Mediterranean and cooked truffle pasta with pecorino.’
After an incident where thieves stole bags including art materials and four paintings, Roland and Lise followed the trail of Van Gogh to Arles and St Remy in Southern France, every artist’s dream.
‘We visited Provence then St Remy. In Aix we painted the majestic Mont Saint-Victoire made famous by Cezanne. Saint Remy has a hospital for people with mental illness where Vincent stayed after his attacks in Arles. We donated a spare easel to the art therapy section created in his name. The town has signs with prints of his paintings in the places where he worked. One spot depicts an olive grove and the mountains behind are in the painting but the olives are not there because a huge excavation has revealed a Celtic-Roman town that was under his feet. The hospital has olive and persimmon trees and we saw a red squirrel as we painted views of the building from the lavender garden. The excitement of seeing a place once touched by this enigmatic, sensitive and intelligent person is palpable. I can’t say what it is but in some of my paintings there is a difference in feeling colour and energy...’
Says Lise of her en plein air painting experience; ‘The challenges of plein air painting are numerous. Changing light, wind, transport and carriage of materials, interruptions from passersby. In addition to these familiar and often experienced issues were the more novel ones of international travel; the language barrier, lack of space and, as an oil painter, using acrylics. Despite these challenges I think the excitement of being in the landscape where Impressionism developed carries into this new body of work.’
exhibition dates:
The Grand Tour
Feb 5 - April 5 2009
exhibition information:
Brochure - front
- 75kb pdf
Brochure - back
- 81kb pdf
Grand Tour Exhibition information - 962kb pdf
Grand Tour exhibition artwork - 509kb pdf
art sales
All art works
featured on the Salon Rouge Gallery website are for sale.
To
purchase, please visit Salon Rouge
or contact Jacqueline on:
m. 0412 587 438
