Art Warming Stories

Competition - Renoir Museum - June 2008

2008-06-23T20:00:00.000-07:00

Friday 13 June 2008 found me at the Renoir Museum in Cannes sur Mer, with 41 other competition entrants under the same tree that shaded Pierre-Auguste Renoir, generations of his family and a circle of artists, including a couple of my all-time favourites, Bonnard, Matisse and Rodin (amongst others).

No wonder it's one of the most magical places on the French Riviera - it really is thick with their presence. Not hard to understand why my creative juices flow when I'm there! The hillside gardens are simply beautiful with many hundred year old olive trees, gnarled and crusty, providing shade and inspiration. Not much has changed since Renoir took up residence.

I was especially pleased to have won Prix de Peinture (painting prize) this particular year, as the Museum is celebrating the centenary of Renoir's arrival in 1908. I was very proud to have been presented with the very first copy of the Renoir Museum Catalogue, which commemorates this centenary. Nobody else in the entire world has one right now - they only go on sale when the exhibition starts on 28 June 2008. It's a beautiful piece of work containing colour plates, source documents including letters in Renoir's hand and many wonderful old photographs of his family and friends. A real treasure!!

You spend a fabulous day under the trees in one of your favourite haunts, doing what you love best (painting!!) and then as a bonus you get praised and rewarded: life doesn't get too much sweeter than this!

Prize-winning paintings by Lynn Derriman: Hommage to Renoir 3 x (30 x 30) acrylic on canvas (click to enlarge)

Exhibition in Antibes - La Jabotte - May 2008

2008-06-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

I was very pleased to have been invited to show my work at La Jabotte during May 2008. It's a tiny jewel, perfect in every facet and provided a perfect setting for my Meditation Series.

The decor is chic but comfortable, daring but tasteful and the hospitality unstintingly generous. On opening night, our numerous guests milled, mingled and overflowed out to the courtyard garden and under a starry sky we quaffed champagne and filled our lungs with the sea air tinged with orange-blossom until late into the night.

Thank you to Yves, Claude & Tommy for a wonderful show!

Exhibition in Barcelona- ARTterre Group - April 2008

2008-06-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

ARTterre Group photographed at GaleriaZero in Barcelona.

Bottom Row (L to R)
Linda Nease ( California )
Tjasa Iris ( Slovenia )
Lynn Derriman ( South Africa )
Sabrina Bueno ( Venezuela )
Thomas Hagdahl ( Sweden )

Top row ( L to R)
Yves April ( Belgium )
Eric Dedebant (France )

Artist info www.derriman.com/ARTterre

A couple of the artists hanging out at the cocktail party with a couple of their loyal fans. Thanks for coming from so far!

Exhibition in Barcelona - Growing a Painting

2008-04-11T23:28:00.001-07:00

ARTterre Group will be creating a painting during their exhibition at GaleriaZero in Barcelona from 21-26 April 08. It will be completed and auctioned for charity on the last night of the show 26 April.

Full proceeds from the sale will go to Action Carbone. www.actioncarbone.org

Exhibition 21-26 April 1100-1300 1600-2000

Cocktail Party 25 April 1800-2000

Live Painting 26 April 1800-1900

Charity Auction 26 April 1930-2000

Info www.derriman.com/ARTterre

Galeria Zero
Canvis Nous 1
Barcelona

Exhibition in Nice - L'Art Animalier - March 2008

2008-04-11T23:28:00.000-07:00

with the show organiser in front of my Koi painting on opening night

Exhibition in Cannes - Global Warming - February 2008

2007-12-05T01:34:00.000-08:00

Global Warming

Palm Beach Casino

Place Franklin Roosevelt

06400 Cannes

France

4 - 29 February 2008

For this exhibition I did a painting called "The Last Fish". It's a cautionary tale.

A story about ancient man who lived off the earth's bounty, hunted and fished to feed and clothe himself and then passed on his wisdom to his offspring, but sadly his simple way of life has all but disappeared and it's no longer possible for simple man to live off the land.

The land is parched from lack of seasonal rains or exhausted from overproduction, unable to produce fodder for the animals who come to graze, but die instead. Polluted and abused, rivers no longer sustain fish fit for human consumption.

The moral of the story: modern man does not respect the earth and the last fish was consumed many years ago!

Press cutting (French only) from the Palmscope N°20 - January to March 2008

Exhibition - Iréne Hamilton

2007-11-23T11:33:00.000-08:00

Iréne Hamilton's paintings have a raw primal energy about them. They are the colour of earth, sea, air, wood, fire and have the combined energy of all of these elements. They are a clever fusion of figurative, abstract, collage and textures. I found them imaginative and thought-provoking. You can see more of her work on http://www.irenehamilton.com/

The show is on at the Centre Culturel Roquefort-les-Pins from 23 Nov - 7 Dec 2007. Well worth a visit!

Isabel le Roux - Exhibition at the Cite des Arts, Paris

2007-11-05T01:36:00.000-08:00

Isabel le Roux (left in photo) is a South African artist well known for her street scenes and for good reason. She has an eye for those distinctive details, which will most perfectly encapsulate the mood and character of a scene and her work is jam-packed with movement, colour and local flavour. To see more of her work http://www.isabellerouxart.com/

Last week I attended the opening night of her latest exhibition at the Cité des Arts, Paris.

The Cité is a unique world within a world. Creative types, from the four corners of the earth (and some, apparently from other planets) rub shoulders, hell-bent on their particular passion: visual arts or music. It’s quite heady stuff and not for the faint-hearted!!

Each participating country has studio space at the Cité and artists apply for a minimum two-month residency through their national arts council. Selection is strictly on merit. Residency culminates in a show at the Cité’s exhibition space and there is always an after party in the artist’s studio. I needed a couple of headache tablets the morning after this particular party!

Exhibition - Nicole Fournier Airaud

2007-09-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 15 Sep the Hotel La Jabotte hosted the opening of an exhibition of powerfully poetic paintings by Nicole Fournier Airaud http://nicolefournierairaud.com/

The Hotel La Jabotte is a total delight to the senses. Small, but perfectly formed, it offers 12 rooms, set around a garden courtyard complete with mature orange tree, no more than an elegant stroll from the beach at Cap d'Antibes http://www.jabotte.com/

GMAC Valbonne 2007

2007-09-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

I took a 9m² stand at the Grande Marché Art Contemporain in Valbonne this year. They have a turnout of 150 exhibitors representing most artistic disciplines. It was good to meet other artists and it was fun being surrounded by so many creative people. It was generally agreed that turnout and sales were disappointing, but I was pleased with my own results and the level of serious interest in my work. A number of my existing clients dropped in and it was also a good way of extending my contacts list with new names.

This was one of my favourite stands: Julien Allegre. He calls himself a 'Sculpteur Corrosif' because he works with acid on metal. He also paints onto metal and produces the most amazing work - if only I could afford it!!

International Ex Tempore Piran 2007

2007-09-14T03:17:00.000-07:00

This summer I was invited to participate in an art competition in Slovenia called Ex Tempore Piran.

This event has taken place annually, in early September, since 1966 and this year there were over 400 entrants, from throughout Europe and the judges, all well-known in art circles, were from Austria, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia.

Ex Tempore is THE major art competition in Slovenia and the newspapers and TV chains covered the prize giving and opening night celebrations held under the night sky on Tartini Square in Piran.

Piran is a coastal town, which lies on the 46 km stretch of Slovenian coastline sandwiched between Italy and Croatia. From here, Venice can just be seen on a clear day, the Italian Alps are clearly visible and the Croatian border is a 5 minute drive away. This is me and international artist Tjasa Iris (left in photo) with Piran in the background on the day we submitted our paintings. The scene I chose to paint for the competition included the beautiful blue expanse of the bay and the characteristic Black Pine Trees that line the sea front.

Co-inciding with Ex Tempore, Tjasa hosts an art 'happening" called Artist’s Colony Branik-Rihemberk at her beautiful old home, Villa Flora, in a small Slovenian village called Branik, which nestles at the foot of brooding Castle Rihemberk and in amongst the wine farms. She’s a generous host and a great guide, full of ideas on what to see in the area and a mine of information. She also does B&B’s at Villa Flora for painters and non-painters and painting workshops http://www.tjasairis.com/ It’s a lovely drive on excellent roads from Branik to Piran, through countryside still untouched by tourism (for the moment) and well worth seeing.

To get to Slovenia, I took the overnight train from Nice to Venice (Mestre) and then connected with a train to Monfalcone in Slovenia, where Tjasa picked me up by car. On the way back I took the morning train from Novo Gorica to Venice (St Lucia), checked my bags into paid storage and spent a fabulous day at the Venice Biennale (Arsenale only, as the Gardens are closed on Mondays) and even had time to treat myself to a spaghetti vongole and panna cotta at my favourite restaurant, the Quattro Feri at piazza St Barnabas, before taking the overnight train home again!