Painting should call out to the viewer…and the surprised viewer should go to it, as if entering a conversation.
Roger de Piles – Cours de Pientre par Principles – 1676
Jean Claude Dutertre knew he wanted to be an artist when he was 12 years old. As a child he was often around painters and sculptors and in and out of museums. For his birthday his mother bought him a set of oil paints and a large pad of paper. He loved it so much he took it back to boarding school with him. During study hall he took the paper and paints out. All the other kids gathered around him. The first painting he made was of a dragon because he was fascinated by the story of St. George and the Dragon. He used all the sildenafildosage.com paint he had until the paper became very heavy. After school he asked some boys to help him take his painting outside and they tacked it to a tree. With the paint dripping all over them they danced around singing and laughing. He was so impressed by the reactions he received that he knew this would be his life path.
Jean Claude moved to Paris from the country and continued to study painting. His first show was with Picasso. He continues to paint in the small village of Mauvezin d’Armagnac. The entire top floor attic of his house is his studio. He is inspired by music and often paints according to what he hears, orchestrating the drama, and even though his canvases are alive with movement, he is very precise when he puts paint to linen.
Art is a metaphor. The artist touches something divine that leaves us silent and immediately contemplative. I think what moves us so deeply is the beauty expressed which transcends the craft. Sometimes, when I feel unmoved by a piece of artwork I if the artist was unmoved by the making of the art. Andrew Wyeth said, “One’s art goes only as far and as deep as one’s love goes. And, it is only in that love, that obsession, that focused attention that the artist will care enough to overcome all the personal, technical and conceptual problems that stand in the way of the ability to create something worthwhile.”
Peggy Kluck has been painting for as long as she can remember. She was born in the Netherlands, but has lived in the Gers for almost 40 years. If you go over the bridge to grandma’s house in Cravencères, you’ll most likely find Peggy in her atelier with her dogs. Though she often travels by herself to exotic places like Morocco and Corsica, sometimes she goes no further than her backyard. Peggy has grown a flower garden to rival Giverny. She says art is about poetry, it’s about seeing the ordinary as poetic.
Art is difficult to market in the rural countryside of France. Most farmer’s houses have little adornment. Instead, they find beauty in the natural landscape that surrounds them daily. Undaunted, Peggy continues to paint, draw and sketch because she can’t help herself. She feels as Ian Robert says, “Art is a wonderful medium for personal growth. When the artist truly engages and pays attention to the insights that come, they can overcome unconscious obstacles to their expression.”
In order to see beauty in this world we must carry it within us.
