“Compromise in colours is grey…”
Edi Rama
These paintings represent a turning point in our perception of images. Fauvism is the name applied to a group of artists working between 1905-10, characterised by strong colours and fierce brushwork. In fact most of the paintings associated with this movement were completed in 1905 by two artists, Henri Matisse and Andre Derain. Matisse and Derain spent the summer of 1905 at Collioure in the South of France. Over a couple of months each painted the same scene, using a technique of bold non-naturalist colours and wild loose dabs of paint. These are portraits of each other. When their Collioure paintings were presented at the Paris Salon the next spring, the impact was jarring. The name les fauves (the wild beasts) was coined. In 2023 we are more immune to the impact. Abstraction, anime, cartoons, CGI, cartoons, modern iPhones and even my Urban Sketching have surreal colour and bold images commonplace. #theboldandthebeautiful #letsmakelemonade
Pen Paint and Scalpel 