Storm Brewing in a Teacup on Downton Abbey

12 x 16'', acrylic on gessoed hardboard

painting #241, 2016

Last month I received an invitation from the Fog Forest Gallery to submit a painting for a group exhibition that would give the viewer some respite in the wake of the current political uncertainty looming with the upcoming presidential elections in the US and the series of violence / terrorist attacks in the past year alone that seems to be on the uprise and constantly in the news. The exhibition is entitled ''Art for a World Gone Mad'' and runs from September 22 to October 15, 2016.

In my still life painting, entitled “ Storm Brewing in a Tea Cup on Downton Abbey”, I chose to document aspects of the critically acclaimed British television series and draw a parallel by allowing us to appreciate  how much the world has indeed changed in the past century for the betterment of humanity in most instances.  

Downton Abbey chronicles the life of the aristocratic Crawley family and exposes the lavish lifestyle of a disappearing elite class and the relationships they entertain with their many servants. But all is not so rosy at the Yorkshire castle. The main story line centers around the heir and descendants of the Earl of Grantham with their on-going struggles to financially sustain the domain as they meet the challenges of the modern world. Although the series is fictional, it does become quite credible as it follows the timeline in the UK during a very turbulent period in their history between 1912 and 1925.  Some of the events that filters through the script written by the show's creator Julian Fellowes include the sinking of the Titanic (1912), the ravages of World War I, 1914-1918 (17 million casualties, 20 million wounded), the 1918 flu pandemic, aka- Spanish flu (in excess of 50 million deaths), women's suffrage in 1918 (right to vote) and the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921).

The themes and drama that are explored in the six seasons are still pertinent today as they were back then and these include: social classes, snobbery, secrecy, sibling rivalries, woman rights/equality, political revolts, conflicts, infidelity, betrayals, feuds, murder, conspiracies, loyalty, blackmail, sabotage, bullying, scandals, racism, refugees, war and love.

The world in which we currently live in is fast paced and in a state of constant evolution. Much can be said about violence in its many forms, but many historians suggest that we are actually living in the most peaceful period of the past 500 years.  Advancements in human rights, technology and medicine alone makes the world a much better place than a century ago. 

The world economy, religious beliefs, the oil industry, control and power does rule the planet at this point and time. Terrorism, drugs, gun control, poverty, corruption, unemployment, politics of fear and division, global warming are some of the current issues we are faced with in 2016.  It's easy to get overwhelmed with the state of the world when we are constantly being bombarded by the media to a point where we become desensitized in order to cope.  While it is easy to reflect on the past when life appeared simpler, except it is not always true.  But one shouldn't lose hope because there is still a whole lot of goodness in the world today. 

As a painter, a great deal of my artwork does document aspect of popular and mass culture.  I do try to put a positive spin in the imagery. I've occasionally done paintings reflecting the economy or political climate by using a Monopoly Game board as a prop, which in turn becomes a form of symbolism.  I am not turning a blind-eye on all that is happening in the world today. We live in a world where we have to adapt in order to strive and move forward. We also need to take time for ourselves by taking care of our body, mind and spirit. I believe in the laws of Karma / the Golden Rule and try to do good, show gratitude, compassion and respect towards others.

With “Storm Brewing in a Tea  Cup on Downton Abbey”,  I've place a tea cup on top of a book that holds imagery detailing the work achieved behind the scenes with set decoration, costume and hair design, in recreating authenticity while filming the series at Highclere Castle.  The book was written by Emma Rowley and published by St. Martin's Press (2013).  The tea cup and saucer done in a Moroccan pattern is by Grace's Teaware. The setting is my own backyard. King Cole Tea is steeped locally by Barbour's in Sussex, NB. It has been widely renown as the favourite tea of Maritimers for the past century. 

I've actually watched the whole series of Downton Abbey twice. The first time, I binge watched the first four seasons on Netflix then tuned in on PBS for the remaining last two seasons. Then, I replayed the five seasons again on Netflix while I started this painting. I was hooked after watching just one episode. A combination of brilliant writing, a stellar cast and stunning cinematography helped create one of the most beloved and widely watched television dramas in the world. It's a serial where happiness is fleeting for most characters. The daily ritual of drinking tea is often the only constant they can rely on. Even while in the trenches of WWI, Thomas Barrow is serving tea to Matthew Crawley steeped from a cooking pot over a campfire. I leave you with words of wisdom from the matriarch of the Crawley family, Lady Grantham, brilliantly played by Maggie Smith.

''Just the ticket.  Nanny always said, Sweet tea is the thing for frayed nerves''

from Season 1, episode 3.

Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street, Sackville, NB
(506) 536-9000 
e-mail- gallery@nbnet.nb.ca

-SOLD

Book Club: Late afternoon coffee with Oprah

14 x 14'', acrylic on gessoed hardboard, 

2011, painting #202

Where does inspiration comes from? For me it's often a sequence of events that ignites the idea. This past spring, I watched the last 30 episodes of the Oprah Winfrey Show. After 25 years, she was saying goodbye to daytime television and moving on to her own network, appropriately named OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network). During this same period,  I was browsing through the used book section at a Canadian Dollar Store here in town, when I spotted no less than a dozen books that were chosen as past selections for her Book Club. What are the odds, since the book display case is only a two sided, four feet wide rack. When I got back home, it all came to me, an homage to the grand lady of television. The next day, I went back and bought seven of them, adding to the four I already had purchased in past years. When I really think about it, over all those years, even if I had only watched 50 shows per season, it would amount to 1250 episodes.......1250 hours in front of the tube.  

She started her book club in September of 1996. The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard was chosen as the first selection. Viewers were invited to read the book and the author was often present for an audience discussion at the conclusion. During the fifteen years, 67 books were introduced to her viewers. Because of the book club's wide popularity, many obscure titles have become very popular bestsellers. Several novels have sold in excess of one million copies, this occurrence is widely known as the Oprah Effect. It is estimated that the sales of the ''Oprah Book Club'' editions has sold in excess of 55 million copies. The top five with sales figures as of May 2011 are:

1. Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, 3,370,000 copies
2. James Frey, A million little Pieces- 2,695,500 copies
3. Elie Wiesel, Night- 2,021,000 copies
4. Cormac McCartney, The Road- 1,385,000 copies (after the book was selected, it was awarded the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 2007)  
5. Joyce Carol Oates, We were the Mulvaneys, 1,348,000 copies

Many of the titles would later be made into film, such as The Deep End of the Ocean, The Reader, The Pilot's Wife, White Oleander, House of Sand and  Fog, A Map of the World, the Road and Love in a Time of Cholera.

Around 1996, was also the period when she started to enlighten people by having spiritual authors with their words of wisdom. This was the time when I really started to tune in, and had my own spiritual awakening while reading Celestine Prophecies by James Redfield.  Many people viewed this as a menace to established religions vs church free spirituality. I view them as two separate entities, which I won't go into details, but both are connected to God or a ''higher being''. She would emerged as a spiritual leader in the process, which continues on her own network with ''Oprah's Lifeclass''.  In fact, the only book that I have read from the Book Club selections is A New Earth by  Eckhart Tolle, which is my all-time favorite spiritual book. However, I have read many of the other books that were introduced on air during these spiritual classes from authors like Gary Zukav, Sarah Ban Breathnach, Shirley McClaine, Dannion Brinkley, James Van Praagh, Carolyn Myss, Rhonda Byrne, Wayne  Dwyer, Richard Carlson, Betty J. Eadie and several others. These are the authors that bring enlightenment with what Oprah calls ''A-ha moments''.

For this painting, I went for the visuals. In this lot of seven books are no less than three Nobel Prize Award Winners. Toni Morrison and Gabriel Garcia Marquez for literature and Eli Wiesel for Peace. The titles are as follows (clockwise)-

1- One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (featuring a painting by Cathleen Toelke)

2- Stones from the River - Ursula Hegi (featuring a painting by Albrecht Durer)

3- Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison

4- The Bluest Eyes - Toni Morrison

5- Night - Eli Wiesel

6- A New Earth- Awakening to your Life's Purpose - Eckhart Tolle

7- Love in a time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

The Toni Morrison books are kind of hidden, but they are at the base level and they anchor the composition, plus she is one of Oprah's favorite person. I chose Love in a time of Cholera for a few reasons. It really complimented the color scheme of the cup and saucer. This Royal Albert demi-tasse with floral motif is called Camelot. It once belonged to my wife Suzanne's grandmother. When she died, Suzanne's mother Viola inherited the heirloom and displayed it in a curio wall cabinet for many years. Viola passed away, 6 years ago, she was an avid fan of the Oprah Winfrey Show.

In related stories, I've been sponsoring a boy from Haiti for three years now, specifically with money I earn from selling art.  I only get a letter from Wilky about once a year. The second letter I ever received was on January 12, 2010. It came with an updated photo of him. That evening as I was about to put his photo in a picture frame, I switched on the television as they were announcing and covering the devastation from earth quake that had just hit Haiti. The fact that I was holding his photo, also shook me. Fortunately for him, he does not live near Port-au-Prince and their area suffered minimal damage. On the same day I purchased the lot of seven books which including Love is a Time of Cholera, I was to receive the only letter from him this year. That day I read that his family had been afflicted during the recent cholera outbreak. He became gravely ill and one of his brothers almost died.

This past spring our 16 year old son was hospitalized for the first time in his life with viral infection that compromised his immune system. During this time he was reading Night by Eli Weisel for a book report in his English studies class. One morning as he had a fever of 104 F, and felt too weak to read, I sat at his bedside and read out loud a few chapters of the author's personal heartbreaking account of family rupture in concentration camps during WW2. 

I'm planning to do a complimentary Oprah Book Club piece next year taking a slightly different approach.  

To acquire this painting, please contact the 
Fog Forest Gallery 
14 Bridge Street, Sackville, NB. Canada
(506) 536-9000 or e-mail-gallery@nbnet.nb.ca . 

-SOLD

Tea with Emma

Acrylic on gessoed hardboard,

12 x 12'', 2010, #186

Continuing my authors series, I wish to shine some light on Jane Austen (1775-1817). Regrettably, I haven't been able to devote much time to reading in recent years, but my wife who is an avid reader has read a few of her novels. I have however seen several of the films that were adapted from her books. The first being Sense and Sensibility in 1995 for which Emma Thompson earned an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire England, the seventh of eight children. She was educated mainly by her father and older brothers, and began writing during her early teenage years with parodies and sketches meant for the amusement of her family. From 1811 to 1816, with the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published after her death in 1818.

Finding desirable suitors (husbands) while maintaining social standing and economical security is a common theme in most of her novels. She died quite young at the age of 41 and ironically never married. The film, Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway explores her own journey of finding love as a young adult. At age twenty, she would have been romantically involve with a Thomas Lefroy. He had just finished a university degree and was moving to London to train as a barrister. However, he was financially dependent on an uncle, and since neither had money, their prospects were grim. Their plans to elope were shattered when Jane learned that his own family also depended on Tom financially. She would later receive another marriage proposal which she declined. Entering a marriage because of financial arrangements between two disinterested parties was an appalling concept for her. The parallel between the heroines in her novels and herself is that they would only marry for love. Her novels all have fairy tale endings. Sadly in her own life there were no Mr. Knightley or Mr. Darcy to sweep her off her feet.

She took a revolutionary stance when she said she wanted to become a writer. Employment opportunities were very limited for women at the time. Her first novels were even published anonymously, which spoke grimly of her own actual situation and for that of woman in general. Her books and film adaptations have all received critical acclaim. She appeals to Pop Culture and to the most serious scholars, because she understands human condition. They are eloquently written, witty, intelligent, articulate, melodramatic and of course sentimental and romantic. Her novels provide a biting social commentary of that era and are comedies of manners.

Last weekend as I painted away, the film ''Emma'' starring Gwenth Paltrow as Emma Woodhouse who thinks of herself as a romantic matchmaker, ran a total of three times during a 24-hour period on the Bravo network. This week, I rented ''Becoming Jane'' and listened to the director and producers commentaries describing each scenes as I continued painting. ''Pride and Prejudice'' a film I have viewed many times finished off my week. Keira Knightley gives a ''tour de force'' performance, especially in the scene when she first rejects Mr. Darcy marriage proposal( played by Matthew MacFadyen) .

The book in this painting was published by Barnes and Noble, with a Pre-raphaelite genre painting on it's cover entitled ''Il y en a toujours un autre'' (''There will always be an other''), 1882 by British artist Marcus Stone. It's unfortunate that the saucer covers almost all of the image.

When we visited the south of England this past spring, we had a chance to spend a few hours in Bath. A city she lived for a few years after her father retired. The photo on the left is of my son Jean-Luc at the front door of their house at 25 Gay Street. The photo on the right of my wife Suzanne a bit further down that same street at number 40, site of the Jane Austen Center. Due to time restraints on our bus tour, we only had enough time to venture off on our own to find these locations.

On a personal note, this painting is a tribute to my mother, whose name was also Emma. She died four years ago on November 17. Her beautiful spirit lives within me still. Her simplicity and gentile heart were her most endearing attributes and I loved her immensely. The tea cup and saucer (Windsor, fine bone china) belonged to her and was a wedding gift they received when she married my father in 1958. My own artistic abilities is a gift I've probably received from him. He had amazing manual skills and could practically do anything. It left an indelible impact on me. He preceded her to the grave in 2003.
Currently on exhibit at the Fog Forest Gallery's Christmas Showcase.
-SOLD

Green Tea with Mary

Acrylic polymer emulsion on gessoed hardboard, 12 x 10"

Painted- March 20 - April 1, 2007, #119.

In context that these paintings are all for a solo show, I am producing imagery that I hope will create a sort of narrative. Elements from one painting, may appear in another, either physically or thematically. Here, a tea cup is sitting on a Mary Pratt book entitled, A Personal Calligraphy. An art book with some of Mrs. Pratt paintings, chronicles, reflections and some of her published essays.

The light source above is coming from a Dragonfly Tiffany style lamp, a birthday gift from my wife a few years ago. I was fascinated by how the light and the stained glass shade played on the reflective surface of the tea. The cup and saucer are Royal Daulton.

- SOLD