The bay of the historical Cote d’Azur town of Villefranche-sur-Mer has a special place in my heart. I have spent a vast amount of time over the last 12 years in this part of the world and the bay has always been of great importance to me. The bay, coupled with the climate and the light, have been a great source of fuel and inspiration to both my art and my imagination. It has given me so much in this respect.
My painting is a homage and gesture of gratitude to this unique source of inspiration. When I painted the bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer, I did so in my own style with a special emphasis on capturing the spirit and essence of this place. In the same way that Vincent Van Gogh brought alive the spirit, electricity and subtle colours in his famous landscape paintings created in the towns of Arles and Saint-Remy-de-Provence in the south of France, I strove to also achieve this in this painting.
In this painting, I wanted to execute the brilliance, clarity and different hues of blue of the bay with all the myriad of different boats and yachts that seem to have an almost permanent presence in the bay, especially in the summer season. And this brings a new energy and dynamism to the bay. The surrounding hills also have their own special energy. They strongly complement the bay and in the realms of colour alone, have more earthy, rustic and primordial hues. They support and ground the allure and glamour of the bay.
Text by NIcholas Peart
(c)All Rights Reserved
27th July 2024
Image: Nicholas Peart, “The Bay Of Villefranche-sur-Mer”, oil on canvas
I am sharing my artist statement, which I published in August 2019. I think it still holds up well today and is by far the best and clearest analysis of my paintings. To view my paintings, please click on the following link, which will direct you to them on my artist website. I have written and published several art related articles here on Latitude Post, including an earlier piece on my paintings from June 2016 entitled Spiritual Coding And Self Discovery: An Exploration Of My Paintings – Nicholas Peart, 26th July 2024
When I paint, I paint as if I were writing poetry. Yet poetry not restricted by the straitjacket of subject matter. My paintings are not bound by events or issues, especially, those that are social or political in nature. Neither are they limited or boxed by identity. To be clear on the latter, I mean identity confined by race, nation, social class, culture etc. More broadly, they are not bound by time and space. Therefore, I refer to my paintings as visual transcendental poems, since the essence of my paintings is not limited by the fundamental universal boundaries of time and space.
This essence is completely free; like stars, or fragments of matter in the universe. Irrespective of whether it’s alive or dead, visible or invisible. This essence exists eternally, in alternating degrees of energy states. The carcasses of my paintings – the canvases and applied paint – are not eternal, but the essence of my paintings – the underlying spirit – is very much eternal. The paintings themselves are no different to physical living organisms in their permanence. And that’s fine. But at the very least, they are brief records of this eternal and unbreakable essence.
My paintings are mirrors into my soul. Each painting I create is a tangible visual tapestry of my unconscious, or as I prefer to refer to this, the eternal source. And this eternal source pins down more clearly this essence I’ve been trying to explain. When I paint, I paint my feelings that originate from this eternal source. The ritual of painting enables me to materialise all my mental complexities. Each painting is a material, tangible document of these intangible and invisible complexities; whether they are my dreams or nightmares, feelings of happiness or sadness, moments of joy or pain, occasional senses of longing or nostalgia regressions, all my experiences, all my emotional complexities, my idealism, my romanticism, and so forth. The origin of those complexities derives from the true spiritual essence of my being, the eternal source.
When I compose written poems, just as my paintings, their essence originates from the eternal source. My best written poems originate when I am enveloped in a powerful and indescribable realm of magic, as if I am wading consciously through a fleeting secret world. And when I am unexpectedly thrown back down to a more superficial plain, then the written poems lose their power and connection to the eternal source. Whenever I attempt to write poetry in this more mono-dimensional vacuum, the results always feel forced and disconnected.
My paintings share the same essence with my written poems, but written poems are constructed with written words. With words, I can also project this eternal essence, yet when I paint, I can project and translate this essence in a freer and more expansive way. Via my paintings, one is presented with the opportunity to be immersed into this eternal essence of my spiritual being, which is permanent and will outlive the carcass of my physical being.
In my most recent paintings, which I’ve been working on since 2018, I’ve been experimenting more with colour. In my older series of paintings, the eternal source never left me. The composition and energy of my older paintings has always been strongly connected to this eternal source yet there was less sensitivity towards colour. I have always been aware of colour, but not to the same degree as I am currently aware and sensitive to it, so much so that I view it with more innocent and less jaded and tired eyes. My current approach to colour is akin to that of a child seeing the moon for the very first time and trying to seize it.
With my latest paintings I like to view and approach my newfound appreciation of colour as a brand new journey through light and as I paint I hope to continue to crystalize this light on the canvas.
By Nicholas Peart
(c)All Rights Reserved
Originally written and published in August 2019
Image: The Great Feast In The Parallel Cosmos (2019) by Nicholas Peart
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