Showing posts with label Artist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Artist. Show all posts

Sunday, January 10, 2010

It's been a while, but I feel like a blog; Resolutions versus Aspirations

A pleasant Christmas came and went while I wasn't looking. The New Year celebration was enjoyed with friends yet now, after only a week or so, it too has shrunk into a slightly blurred experience like a recent dream, more a fading feeling than memory. Is this a sympton of old(ish) age?
The months ahead are already filling with projects and promises however. I feel enlivened by the prospects, despite the cold, grey-and-white weather. As for 'Resolutions', I want to 'do' more art -painting and drawing. Fleur and I are booked for a two-person exhibition in the early summer in Tulle so this means more thought and planning than usual and definitely more work. It's some time ahead but I know how time will out-run me as usual.
Xaintrie is under snow at present but we're not overly inconvenienced. I'm still not sure how the main roads can be simply wet rather than icy when the temperature is well below freezing. I know the local councils spread salt but there never seems to be ony 'grit' as in the UK. Do the French use only salt - I don't know.
I do know though that it's too miserable to go out at the moment and as it's Sunday and the log fire is blazing away (I blogged on the subject of wood as a heating fuel in the 'Xaintrie Blog' in November 2008), I'll do some more painting. Trouble is, my bedroom-studio is in the roof-space and poorly insulated. There's a limit to how long one can work in temperatures of around 14 centigrade (as it is at present). Ironically, it's over 20 in the lounge, below this room. I can get the studio up to 15 or 16 on a day like this (it's -3, that's minus three outside at present).
So - that's another project for this year; insulate this room. Tricky though, 'cos I want to keep the splendid beams and roof trusses visible. Here I am, thinking about doing some work on this rather oversize portrait. Why so big? Don't ask, as I don't know.

Happy New Year

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

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Monday, September 21, 2009

Wonderful places, Wonderful names: A visit to Squividan and the paintings of Emile Simon and Madeleine Fié-Fieux (pronounce "Fee-ay-Fee-uh")

Ane extraordinary pair of Bretonne painters - pretty-well unknown as they had no need to sell their art and simply kept it at home at Squividan. When Madeleine died in 1995 at the age of 98, she bequeathed everything to the département of Finistère.
This summer, 2009, some of the works were put on show to the public in a small gallery attached to the manor house for the first time.
If you can read French, here is a reference:

Here's a summaryof their biographies (I haven't found one in English yet so the translation is mine):

Emile Simon and Madeleine Fié-Fieux lived and painted together in and around their home at Squividan in the commune of Clohars-Fouesnant, Finistère. They were attracted by the local countryside, architecture, traditional costumes and customs and recorded these in oil-paint.
Eventually, over 1500 works were amassed at the manor and left to the département, i.e. the nation and the world at large.
In 2009 the manor was openend to the public for the first time.
Emile Simon was born at Rennes, 28 February 1890 to a 'modest' family - father a printer and mother, dressmaker. He obtained a school diploma in Beaux-Arts and a bursary to study art in Paris in 1908. He further obtained the 'Prix du concours de Rome' (prize, enabling him to travel and study in Rome) but was persuaded to give up his place to an older pupil, hoping to go the following year. However, in 1913 he appeared to have gained a post as a professer in Cairo, only to be clalled-up (mobilised) at the beginning of WW1 so went back to France.
Incredibly, he was unfortunate to be taken gravely ill with the notorious 'Spanish 'flu' in 1917 and was invalided out of the army. Back at the family home in Rennes, he found manual work in order to support his family.
In 1921 we find him again as a professor of art in Nantes at which time he lost his left eye in a motoring accident. He married later that decade but in 1930, was already a widower and living with his mother at Nantes.
Several notable paintings and by him are recorded in the 1930s.
WW2 commenced and in 1943 moved to Quimper to avoid bombardments with a married couple, Philippe and Madeleine Fié-Fieux. Philippe was a wealthy dental surgeon. By 1945 he had obtained the post of Director of the school of fine arts at Nantes and in 1947 they all moved in to the Manor Squividan.
At some time a little later it appears that Madeleine became a widow. Emile and Madeleine stayed togrther at Squividan for the next 30 years, painting all the while. Their relationship during this time is not totally clear. Emile Simon died in 1976, painting with his left hand for the last 4 years of his life, having suffered a stroke in 1972.

In fact, Madeleine was his pupil back in Nantes, possibly before the commencement of WW2. Born in 1897, she came from a wealthy family and was a gifted potraitist. After Emile died, she took it upon herself to conserve his works, continued to paint, and died in 1995, leaving everything to the Conseil général, Finistère.

This is the manor where they lived and painted for 30 years.

One of Emile's paintings of Madeleine - painting.

Lovely light.

Superb technique.

We stumbled across all this last Friday. A small gallery with 30 or so works is now open and in 3 years' time the manor itself will have been renovated, open to the public and many more of their works will be available.
His works are incredibly attractive, nearly always done outside 'on the spot' and apparently, never reworked. Beautifully cleaned and restored, for me they are of among some the most inspiring and emotive works I have ever seen.

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

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Sunday, January 18, 2009

Keeping Idle Hands Busy

At last! - It's now a simple matter to start a small business here without the cumbersome and complex bureaucracy previously associated with this activity. In fact, up to now many immigrants to France, me included, have fought shy of jumping through the hoops set before us in order to start a small legitimate company or trade. There's no doubt that the 'black'  activities (no, not racist; the French call illegal trading 'working on the black') of many people here, including the French themselves, have thrived simply because of the onerous registration processes and up-front tax charges which exist as a burden to all sizes of commercial enterprises. 'Sarko' seems to be making waves in all directions since his inauguration in May 2007 and this is another of his changes in order to shake France into life and increased profitability.
The instrument of change is a new category of business called an "Auto-Entrepreneur". The link shows a brief description. In fact, you can carry out the whole registration process on-line.

At the end of 2007, I was offered some work as an artist-painter, painting large acrylic scenes of early twentieth-century French rural life. These are displayed, screwed to the walls as theme-decor for a chain of franchised fast-food restaurants called 'Lapataterie', a sort of 'Spud-U-Like'. It meant producing three or four paintings a month and it had to be legitimate, so I took advantage of the services offered by the 'Maison des Artistes and registered as a professional "Artiste-Peintre'. The MDA, among other things, organises your social security payments for you in such a way as to protect you from the highs and lows associated with the life of an artist who never knows what the future might hold, income-wise. Other advantages include the non-necessity to register your business for VAT, or to use an accountant, or keep complex records of income and expenditure, and so on. The new 'Auto-Entrepreneur' category enables the same, but for anyone, doing anything.

There is a recession ringing in our ears but above this din I've just heard that for me, the new year has started with a new order for four more paintings so - so far, so good.

Mapmaker



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