Category Archives: The Arts

Bits and pieces from the worlds of painting, writing, film and music.
With a few quotations and opinions thrown in.

I’m back at long last

Fethiye Bay5JPG

Acrylic on Canvas 60cms x 45cms

Well it’s been quite a while!  Where do I begin?  I suppose with where I left off nearly two years ago.  I was given the all clear after 20 weeks of chemotherapy ( protocol Folfox 4 ) which followed six weeks of combined radiotherapy and chemo for 5 days a week up in Antalya, What with the driving and the side effects it wasn’t a pleasant time.

That brings us to January 2015 when I had an operation to reverse my colostomy and six months of recovery and every reason to be optimistic.

Then, in June the doctors found that the cancer had come back. This time it’s in my liver. For an active, fit, teetotal, non-smoker, to say I was shocked and dismayed is an understatement. The current position is that my condition is inoperable and I need chemotherapy every two weeks to manage the cancer. Luckily, I can get this treatment here in Fethiye under the exceptional Dr. Ugur and I have had 20 treatments to date and I’m still standing!  Gina has been brilliant. loving, thoughtful, generous with her care and ever present. I will never be able to thank her enough.

Despite the recent setbacks, I’m restarting this blog as I want to get back in touch with you all and pass on my observations on life here in Fethiye.  In that way I plan to get motivated to paint a bit more often.  For obvious reasons I won’t be posting as frequently.

Slightly Neo Impressionism

Seascape2 9" x 6" acrylic on mount board

Seascape2
9″ x 6″ acrylic on mount board

The style I found myself exploring lies between the two late 19thC movements of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism and the borders between the impulsive nature of the former and the more scientific approach of the latter.  I’m aiming for a pointillist technique without the discipline of Divisionism and Chromatics.  Using acrylic paint encourages this looser approach because of it’s tendency to bleed and I plan to avoid the use of line altogether.  I can see the dangers lurking ahead but we will see how we go.

Song Titles featuring Artists

Panama Hat 9" x 6" Acrylic on mount board

SOLD

As I painted this still life, the song Panama Hat by Eric Bibb was buzzing around my head.  And that got me thinking of songs with artists names in the title.  There are probably dozens about art in general ( like Art School by The Jam) but I wanted to create a YouTube playlist of just those that name checked an artist.  I came up with these off the top of my head but  I would have liked to have found a few more.   I’m sure they must be out there.  Please tell me if you have any favourites I’ve missed.

 

Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War, Paul Simon

When I Dream of Michelangelo, Counting Crows

Pablo Picasso, The Modern Lovers

Painting by Chagall, The Weepies

Andy Warhol, David Bowie

Vincent, Don McClain

The Mark Rothko Song, Dar Williams

Salvador Dali’s Garden Party, TV Personalities

Eagle Eyes

Eagle Eyes 9" x 6" Acrylic on mount board

SOLD

I am a member of an art class who meet on Thursday mornings at the Nayla restaurant  on the beautiful Fethiye kordon or promenade, you would call it.  Our teacher, Leslie is quite ill and receiving treatment back in the UK.   While we wait and look forward to her recovery we continue to meet as a group and I really enjoy our get togethers.   The members are nearly all women and as a side benefit I now know quite a lot about gynaecology and diets.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, the creative side  has become a bit cute and fluffy without Leslie’s direction.  For example, last week the subject matter included kittens, puppies, donkeys, babies and fairies.  When the lovely Linda asked me if I thought her painting of an eagle looked more like a dove I sat down and did this in response.

Recycling Turkish style

Geraniums on a wall 11" x 8" Acrylic on card

Geraniums on a wall
11″ x 8″ Acrylic on mount board

The container of choice around here is a recycled olive oil can.  Everywhere you look you will see  them along the edges of garden paths or perched atop stone walls leading their second lives as garden plant pots.  The filling of choice is the geranium followed closely by chillies and tomatoes.  Depending on the standard of the owner’s green fingers they range in quality from straggly, underwatered and underfed, sad cases to splendid, bushy specimens in the peak of condition.  It’s the cans themselves that fascinate me as in their original, pristine state they are normally highly decorated examples of mediterranean product advertising featuring bucolic landscapes, portraits, poultry, ornate patterns and obviously olives in all their forms.  After time, rust takes over and the beauty of the design slowly fades, replaced by a different kind of beauty.  A bit like their owners, come to think of it.

Tomb Bay

 

Lycian Rock Tombs in Tomb Bay

Lycian Rock Tombs in Tomb Bay

Sailing in Tomb Bay  Fethiye

Sailing in Tomb Bay Fethiye

Tomb Bay

 

Just 15 miles, not far from here

Across a space so crystal clear

A sea where the Meltimi blows

Sailing west, the compass shows.

Tomb Bay where the dust has blown

From people laid to rest in stone

Into the water deep and blue

The reflections that once were you

And on a rocky outcrop crown

Where white goats are staring down

Graves are hewn from ochre rock

Now empty caverns without locks

Among the Oleander there

When Sweetgum scents the evening air

I wander up the stony trail

To try to find a ghostly tale

And Tomb Bay was the place to go

When Ziggy died and we were low

Then reminders of the times we shared

Were all around, so much despair

Tomb Bay where the Lycians laid

Their dead to rest in ancient days

But now 3000 years have passed

Did they believe that they would last

Forever…..

Tony Taylor, July 2013

Fethiye from across the bay

Fethiye Bay 24" x 18" Acrylic on canvas

Fethiye Bay
24″ x 18″ Acrylic on canvas

This is the larger canvas promised in my post of the 18th April.  It came together just as I wanted although I experienced all my usual issues over how much detail to include, still I am very pleased with the end result. I’ve just taken it to the framers and on the way back I decided that I like this view so much I will paint a even larger one!

Wet in wet

Poppy1 Watercolour, 10" x 8"

SOLD
Watercolour, 10″ x 8″

Poppy2 Watercolour 10" x 8"

Poppy2
Watercolour 10″ x 8″

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been laid low with Man Flu this week, in my case a particularly virulent summer cold, the first I’ve had since arriving in Turkey so I shouldn’t complain.  However it’s not easy to paint with streaming eyes so I apologise for the lack of posts this week. I’m more or less back now but, considering the state of my head and all that liquidity about, I thought it more appropriate to get the watercolours out and tackle something simple.