Keith Grant Metamorphosis

KEITH G R A N T Metamorphosis

KEI T H GRA N T Metamorphosis

C H R I S B E E T L E S G AL L E RY

Copyright © Chris Beetles Ltd 2016 8 & 10 Ryder Street St James’s London SW1Y 6QB 020 7839 7551 gallery@chrisbeetles.com www.chrisbeetles.com IBSN 978-1-905738-72-4 Catalogue in publication data is available from the British Library Researched, written and edited by David Wootton Design by Jeremy Brook of Graphic Ideas Photography by Julian Huxley-Parlour Reproduction by www.cast2create.com Colour separation and printing by Geoff Neal Litho Limited Front cover: Islands of the North, ‘Lofoten Islands’ [42] Front endpaper: Atlantis II [102] Back endpaper: Nuthatch, Robin and Wren in Kent [109] Back cover: Marine Eruption [100]

left: The Winter Forest [118, detail] right: Triptych of the Winter River [117, detail]

Contents Chronology of Life and Work

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Nothing is Lost: The Vital Art of Keith Grant

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1: 1959-1970

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2: 1971-1981

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3: 1982-1995

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4: 2004-2014

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5: 2015-2016

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Chronology of Life and Work 10 August 1930 Born Frederick Nall at Walton Hospital, Liverpool, with his twin brother, Roy. He was fostered and later adopted by Charles and Gladys Grant, and grew up at 21 Patrick Avenue, Orrell.

1935-40 Educated, with Roy, at Roberts County Primary School, Orrell.

1940 Evacuated, with Roy, to Peak Dale, Derbyshire.

1941-43 Educated, with Roy, at Bootle Grammar School for Boys, as the result of a scholarship.

1956-57 Produced murals for the Verulamium Museum, St Albans (which were later destroyed).

1956-61 Married to Valerie Owen, a fellow student at Willesden School of Art. 1957 First visited Norway, including the Western Fjords, with Gerry Whybrow, a fellow student from Willesden Art School.

Exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition for the first time.

1943-48 Worked at the Co-operative store, Stanley Road, Bootle.

While there, he attended evening classes at Bootle School of Art, and contributed drawings to the Liverpool Co-op magazine.

1957-59 Produced murals for Rhodesia House, Strand (which were later destroyed). He gained a silver medal for mural painting during his last year at the RCA, as a result of his work at the Verulamium Museum and Rhodesia House.

Before 1948 Attended weekly evening classes in watercolour with the Misses Isaacs in Litherland. Through them, he made his first visits to Wales, staying at their cottage in Glyn Ceiriog, Denbighshire.

1958 Won the David Murray Landscape Award, and used part of it to travel to Paris.

1948-50 Undertook National Service in the Royal Air Force as Aircraftsman 1st Class, first at RAF Bridgnorth, Shropshire, and then RAF Stafford. While there, he received his first opportunity to practise as a painter, producing murals for the canteen.

1950 Moved to London, with Roy, and worked as a window dresser at the Co-op store in Wood Green. While there, he took classes at the Working Men’s College, St Pancras, and designed productions for Mountview Theatre Club, Crouch Hill, including its famous production of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra. He also made his first visit to France.

1958-60 Taught at Kingston School of Art. 1959 Exhibited for the first time at the New Art Centre. Appeared on BBC television’s Monitor with Reginald Brill and Malcolm Kador, fellow teachers at Kingston School of Art. 1959-62 Contributed to three of the ‘Shell County Guides’ [see Nos 01-03].

1960 Held his first solo show at the New Art Centre.

1952-55 Studied at Willesden School of Art under William Brooker, Ivor Fox, Edward Middleditch and Clifford Wilkinson, among others. During this period, he began to holiday in Scotland.

1960-61 Visited Norway as the result of a Norwegian Government Scholarship: spent seven months in Norway, mainly in the north of the country, one month in Oslo [see No 04]. Sailed back, on his boat, the Oswald, with Valerie and her brother, Nigel.

1954 Chaired the Young Contemporaries exhibition, held at the Royal Society of British Artists.

By 1962 Taught at Goldsmiths’ College School of Art.

1955 Held his first ever solo show, in Bootle.

1955-58 Studied at the Royal College of Art, under Colin Hayes, John Minton, Kenneth Rowntree and Carel Weight, among others.

By 1963 Moved to the Abbey Art Centre, New Barnet.

1963-68 Lecturer in the Fine Art Department at Hornsey College of Art.

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1964-1996 Married to Gisèle Barka Djouadi.

1964 Travelled with his wife, Gisèle, and her sister, through Italy to Sicily [see No 05].

1965 First visited Iceland, with Tony Buckingham. Designed sets for productions of Ingmar Bergman’s The City and A Painting on Wood for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art [see No 08]. Exhibited, in a joint show with John Grome, at Galleria Montenapoleone, Milan.

1966 His daughter, Dominique, was born. Second visit to Iceland [see Nos 06-07].

By 1967 Moved to Camden Studios. Held his first solo show at Roland, Browse & Delbanco.

1968-71 Head of the Fine Art Department, Maidstone College of Art, Kent.

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1969 Visit to Norway, with Milada Tashnerova [see Nos 9-11].

His construction, Earth Time and Space – The North was installed outside the Snape Maltings, Suffolk. Grant North, a 15-minute documentary film by Jack Hazan, charted the genesis, construction and installation of Earth Time and Space – The North.

1971 Produced the stainless steel and concrete sculpture, St Joan, to stand outside the Shaw Theatre. As a result he was the subject of ‘Together They Made it on Euston Road’, a Look, Stranger programme for BBC television.

1972 Produced murals for Middlesex Hospital (which was demolished in 2008). He held a solo show at the New Metropole Arts Centre, Folkestone.

1973 Recorded volcanic eruption in Iceland [see Nos 19-22].

1973-74 ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North: An Exhibition of Paintings by Keith Grant’, Scottish Arts Council, Touring Exhibition [see Nos 14-16].

1973-75 Gulbenkian Award Artist-in-Residence, Bosworth College, Leicester. Made sketching trips to Ireland, with his friend, Phillida Ball.

1974 His son, Paul, was born (died 1995). Held several solos show, including one at the New Gallery, Snape, as part of the Aldeburgh Festival, and another at the National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik.

1975 Designed The Magic Mountain, a mosaic for the laboratory block corridor, Charing Cross Hospital, which was executed by young people under the Manpower Services Commission scheme.

1976 Undertook a British Council tour to Cyprus, and while there had a private audience with President Makarios. Also visited Norway on a travel scholarship from the Norwegian government. His solo shows included one at The Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery, New Walk, Leicester, and another at Rochdale Art Gallery.

Circa 1976 Moved to 15 St John’s Terrace, Lewes, East Sussex.

1977 Made a second visit to Sicily. His solo shows included one at Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery.

Until 1979 Taught at St Martin’s School of Art. 1979 Visited Soviet Union for Anglo-Soviet cultural exchange programme of the British Council. His solo shows included one at the Compass Gallery, Glasgow.

1979-81 Head of the Painting Department of Newcastle Polytechnic.

1981 Became a member of the London Group.

1981-90 Head of Department of Art, Roehampton Institute of Higher Education.

1982 Held a solo show at the Solomon Gallery, Dublin. Designed a production of Hamlet for the Young Vic, directed by Terry Palmer, with Edward Fox in the title role. Accepted an invitation to French Guiana to paint the launch of the Ariane rocket, exhibiting the works in the following year at the Paris International Air Show [see Nos 26-34].

1983 His solo shows included one at Logica Holdings Ltd, and another at the Compass Gallery, Glasgow.

1984 First visited Sarawak, Malaysia.

1985 Made a second visit to Sarawak, and showed the resulting work in a solo show at the Francis Kyle Gallery [see No 35].

Also held a solo show at the Aldeburgh Cinema, as part of the Aldeburgh Festival.

1986 Visited Cameroon. Held a solo show at New Metropole Arts Centre, Folkestone.

1987 Held solo shows at Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, and the University of Surrey.

1988 Commissioned to paint a portrait of Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson, the Nobel prizewinning chemist. Made a visit to Israel, sponsored by the British Israel Art Foundation and the Ben Gurion University Trust. The resulting works were included in his first solo show at Cadogan Contemporary Art [see Nos 36-39].

1989 Worked in Arctic Greenland [see Nos 43-44].

1990 His solo shows included one at the Crane Kalman Gallery.

1990-95 Artist-in-Residence, Roehampton Institute of Higher Education.

1991-95 Art Director, Operation Raleigh.

1991 Expedition Artist to the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, with Operation Raleigh.

1992 One of seven Expedition Artists to Venezuela, with Living Earth [see No 47]. Held a solo show at the Gillian Jason Gallery.

1994 Commissioned to paint a portrait of H R H Prince Andrew.

Designed stained glass window (dedicated to J B Priestley and Jacquetta Hawkes) for the J B Priestley Hall at Belle Vue Boys’ School, Bradford. Held ‘Ice and Fire’, a retrospective at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and solo shows at the Rocket Gallery and the new Glyndebourne Opera House.

1996 Settled in Norway. Has continued to work and exhibit extensively in the country.

1999-2000 Designed stained glass and mosaic decorations for Charing Cross Hospital.

2000 Married Hilde Ellingsen. Together, they have a daughter, Thea.

2001 Elected to the membership of the Royal Cambrian Academy.

2001-2 Visited Antarctica on the inaugural Artists and Writers Programme of the British Antarctic Survey [see Nos 49-51].

2004 Winner of competition to paint a new altarpiece for Kopervik Church, Karmøy. (It was dedicated in 2005, but was destroyed along with the church in a fire in 2010.)

2006 Visited Greenland [see No 52].

2008 Held a solo show at Partridge Fine Art. Began to be represented by the Chris Beetles Gallery.

2009 Visited the Faroe Islands [see Nos 56-58].

2010 Held ‘Elements of the Earth’, his first a solo show at the Chris Beetles Gallery.

2012 Invited to stay at ‘Writer’s Block’, Jeffrey Archer’s home at Sa Torre, Mallorca [see Nos 70-72]. Appointed Artist-inResidence at Keble College, Oxford, and undertook the first in a series of seminars on creativity, with Sir Geoffrey Hill, Oxford Professor of Poetry [see No 104].

2014 Second stay at ‘Writer’s Block’, Sa Torre, Mallorca [see Nos 73-79]. Also visited Cyprus [see Nos 93-95].

2015 Visited Sardinia, which provided the inspiration for Atlantis II [No 102], and Sète, in the South of France, in order to prepare to paint Atlantis III: Le Cimetière marin [No 103].

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Nothing is Lost: The Vital Art of Keith Grant

Metamorphosis, oil on canvas, June 2012 (sold by the Chris Beetles Gallery to the David Game Collection)

11 I In 2012, Keith Grant completed canvases entitled Metamorphosis and Metamorphoses. Like many of his major achievements, these are powerful, affecting statements enacting forceful natural transformations. Furthermore, the very expression ‘metamorphosis’ – the action of change in form, shape or substance – suggests a way of understanding Keith himself, in terms of the artistic preoccupations and approaches that he has advanced throughout his life.

From the outset, Keith was alive to Nature in all its mystery, energy, variety and instability, and has developed an art that is sufficiently flexible to respond to its processes. His open attitude and sense of adventure have allowed him to experience nature in all its diversity and at its most extreme, while his modest awareness of its enormity has actually helped him to meet the challenge of representing it.

His long-held dedication to what he calls ‘the North’ has also been a constant dedication to nature. As a child, he cultivated a great sense of wonder during walks on Blundellsands. The Welsh mountains in the distance stimulated his love of high places, while the beauty of the cumulus clouds so overawed him that he desired to follow them northwards.

The pull of the north was an attraction to natural places that were sparse in population, dramatic in appearance and often extreme in their conditions. However, it was also a fascination with what might be termed natural times, including human and geological pasts and also the points at which they intersect, both in history and myth.

By his late twenties, Keith was adding his first experiences of Norway to his visits to Wales and Scotland, and so enriching his idea of the north. However, he was also receptive to other cultures and geographies, and engaged with them when opportunities arose, as in painting murals of Roman civilisation for the Verulamium Museum, St Albans, and of African landscape for Rhodesia House, London.

II Perhaps the most exciting and seminal of Keith’s early journeys were those that he made to Iceland. While a student at the Royal College of Art, in the mid 1950s, his teacher, Colin Hayes, had incited him to go to Iceland, to expand his understanding of the north. A decade later, in 1965, he actually made it there, in the company of his friend, Tony Buckingham. Keith remembers that, we had a phenomenal time … it was the first time I saw volcanoes … extinct, of course … And it was a strange new landscape, but that was also influential, because it was very dark and abstract, the contorted shapes of the lava, and the action of the lava and the sea (in conversation, 9 December 2010).

Then a year later, he returned to Iceland, in the company of a photographer from Hornsey College of Art, in order to observe and record the eruption of Surtsey in drawing, photography and film. Particularly fascinating, and inspiring – among the movement of lava, ash and steam – was the temporary emergence from the sea of an island named Syrtlingur (or Little Surtsey).

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In the same period, Keith became interested in ways of representing changes in both landscape and weather across time.

Initially, he divided his images into vertical strips, in order to record the path of the sun in the Norwegian sky across 24 consecutive hours of daylight. He then adapted this method to the subject of erupting volcanoes in Iceland, as in Volcano and the Midnight Sun [No08], his set design for a production of Ingmar Bergman’s play, A Painting on Wood.

Extending and developing the idea, Keith moved from two into three dimensions, producing Twenty-four hours of the day (1967), a construction in oil on canvas mounted on a revolving drum. Purchased by the tenor, Peter Pears, it hung in the foyer of the new concert hall that Pears and Benjamin Britten had created at Snape Maltings in Suffolk. Its successful reception encouraged Keith to produce further kinetic constructions, including the highly complex, Earth Time Space – The North (1967-69), which he completed specifically for a site outside The Maltings Concert Hall.

Though his kinetic phase soon ran its course, Keith has continued to experiment with a variety of formats that can represent natural change, and often works in groups or series, as in those of the four seasons. Nevertheless, he has always used single images with equal mastery, in order to express the volatility of natural phenomena, as in the paintings of volcanoes that he made following his return to Iceland in 1973. For instance, Eruption Column Rising from the Sea [No 22] embodies Keith’s comment in his journal that, ‘The volcano is a symbol of … a dispassionate and violent reordering of elements’ (5 April 1976).

III In that same journal entry of 1976, Keith noted that an ‘eruption column’ unites ‘the sea with the sky or the land with the sky’, and he has represented not only the elements of the earth and its atmosphere but also the connections between them. It should therefore come as no surprise that, in 1982, he accepted an invitation to go to French Guiana to paint the first commercial launch of the rocket, Ariane 1 [Nos 26-31]. After all, the rocket is mankind’s attempt to unite earth and

atmosphere, as the volcano is one of nature’s. And if the volcano is a symbol of a ‘reordering of elements’, the rocket is a symbol of a desire to explore those elements. Keith himself has all but taken to a rocket in order to draw his viewers’ attention to the sky in all its majesty, from sun, moon and stars to comets and auroras.

The visit to French Guiana also marked the beginning of a new phase in Keith’s travels, in which he visited countries in the tropics and subtropics. This not only widened his experience of the world, opening up a new range of painterly possibilities, but also enabled him to put his existing understanding of the north in perspective. In articles that he published in the mid 1980s, he stated ‘In the North I am an observer … in the jungle I am a participant’ and ‘In the North I am conscious of light and space, … in the rain forests … of minutiae, of leaf-crowded space and of animate life’ (‘Notes from Kourou. F G’, London Magazine, October 1984, page 44; ‘A Doomed Idyll’, The Artist, July 1985, page 22).

The effect that the tropics had on Keith was aural as well as visual, and he rose to the challenge of converting ‘the sound of the jungle … into … images’ (in conversation, 14 January 2016). Both natural sound and manmade music have proved hugely inspiring to him, and have extended his concepts of space, movement, colour and texture, which have then informed his painting. Consider the roar of his waterfalls and the silence of his expanses of sea. Of all the arts, music – abstract, mutable, temporal – may have had the greatest influence on him, and he has been known to cite Walter Pater’s maxim that ‘all art constantly aspires towards the condition of music’.

IV Among composers that Keith has admired and emulated, the modern masters, Olivier Messiaen and Einojuhani Rautavaara, loom large in his consciousness. Both believed that birds have a connection with the mystical aspect of creation and, as a result, incorporated birdsong into their compositions. Similarly, Keith has increasingly enlivened his images with the presence of birds, whether ornithological, mythical or imaginary.

Keith is keenly aware of the significant role that birds have played in various world myths of creation and rebirth.

In 1986, he made a charcoal drawing on the Finnish creation myth, Luonnotar, in which the cosmos hatches from an egg laid by a duck on the knee of ‘the Spirit of Nature and Mother of the Seas’. (The myth is most widely known through the tone-poem composed in 1913 by Jean Sibelius, another of Keith’s favourite composers.) Then, more recently, he has produced several paintings of the Phoenix [including Nos 65, 96 and 98], the long-lived bird of Greco-Roman mythology that ‘doth renew itself and … beget itself continually’ (as expressed in Arthur Golding’s rendering of Ovid’s Metamorphoses).

As these examples indicate, Keith is able to range as widely in his reading and thinking as in his physical travelling.

He moves between Norse and Classical mythologies, finding parallels and complements among their features. So he has depicted the funeral of Baldur as an Icelandic version of the myth of oncoming winter in the north, in The Burning Ship, Dawn [No 114], and Persephone [No 68] as a Greek version of the myth of the returning summer in the south.

His interpretations emphasise both fluidity and analogy of forms, as birds burst forth from rocks or camouflage themselves among plants. And his interests in evolution and correspondence reveal themselves repeatedly, as in Transfiguration [No 99] and the series of ‘Rock Horses’ [Nos 90-92]. At its grandest, his work encompasses the fall of regimes or civilisations, as in The Demolition of the Trojan Horse [Nos 122-123] and Atlantis II [No 102], and the

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destruction and recreation of the earth, as in Ragnarök [No 66]. The soundtrack to these works might possibly be Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen, an elegy to the destruction of German, and by extension European, culture, which was completed in 1945, in the closing months of the Second World War.

V Ultimately, for Keith, the act of transformation takes place in the studio. His journal entries on the genesis of Atlantis III [No 103] do much to aid a viewer’s understanding of the process of painting from blank canvas to finished image [see pages 89 & 92 to 93]. On 25 September 2015, ten days before he set to work, he wrote that he conceived of the subject of Paul Valéry’s poem, Le Cimetière marin, which had provided the inspiration, ‘in a fragmented space, like a galaxy free-wheeling in the immensity of the universe, the perimeter of which will be the “event horizon” of the canvas; its extent and its edges!’ Thus he suggests the negotiation between the potential of the idea and the effort involved in making the artwork. Then, as he proceeds, he reflects on the compromise that occurs between conscious activity and intuition.

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Keith never submits to familiar styles or images, or facile techniques. He will constantly rework, or return to, a painting until he is satisfied with its presence, as with Arcticum Stellis [No 64] (which was originally exhibited as Proscenium Arcticus).

Similarly, he will alter his handling to suit his subject, from work to work, so that the minimalism of The Four Seasons in the North [No 116] was immediately followed by the expressionism of Triptych of the Winter River [No 117] earlier this year.

More than ever, Keith’s works are sparked by reviewing and rehearsing stages of his career, but with the result not of repetition but of revitalisation. So Vesterålen from the Coastal Mountains [No 115] ‘developed by a few imaginative impulses which … referred to my paintings of the 60s’, while Fire Island [No 101] is a ‘reminiscence of Iceland 66 and 73’ (as he wrote in his journal on 20 September and 29 December 2015). There also runs through recent achievements a strand of English Romanticism that leads right back to initial impulses and inspirations. As Ovid wrote in his Metamorphoses, ‘Omnia mutantur, nihil interit’: ‘Nothing lasts, but nothing is lost’.

David Wootton, March 2016

1: 1959-1970

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1959-62: Shell County Guides From the late 1950s, Keith Grant contributed to three of the ‘Shell County Guides’, a series issued by Shell-Mex and BP as poster and magazine advertisements. Then, in 1963, Keith’s artwork for Wiltshire and Cardiganshire was used to provide the covers for ‘The Shilling Guides’ to those counties.

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Keith received the commission through the auspices of Kenneth Rowntree, who was not only one of his most important teachers at the Royal College of Art, but also Art Director for Shell, a significant patron of the arts. He then visited each of the three counties in order to research the elements that would make up the visual anthologies. He had already been drawn to Wiltshire, as a result of his developing interest in the evocative association between landscapes and ancient remains, as at Avebury. He was similarly attracted to the Corbelanus (or Corbalengi) Stone at Penbryn, in Cardiganshire. He remembers, in particular, ‘a very interesting time in the Shetland Islands and Orkneys, looking at the brochs and Skara Brae and other places of historical interest’ (in conversation, 9 December 2010). The experience provided one of the many steps in his passionate exploration and understanding of the North.

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01 WILTSH IRE Watercolour and bodycolour with ink 12 3⁄4 x 16 1⁄2 inches Painted by 1959 Provenance: ‘The Shell Collection of Modern British Paintings’, Sotheby’s, 4 July 2002 Illustrated: ‘Shell County Guides’ poster (printed by Henry Stone), 1960; The Shilling Guides: Wiltshire, London: Shell-Mex and BP, 1963, cover

‘Corn is harvested … alongside the burial mounds of ancient people … herdsmen built circular temples of stone uprights at Stonehenge; and at Avebury … The temple uprights were mostly Sarsen, remnants of a crust of hardened sandstone which were hauled off the Downs … Thatched cottages and thatched chalk walls typify Wiltshire’s dependence on chalk and crop. Apt symbols of the country are the White Horses, of which seven were cut on the chalk slopes between 1741 and 1937 … Sir Christopher Wren, born in the parsonage of East Knoyle in 1632, belongs more to the London of St Paul’s and his other churches.’

(Shell Guide to Wiltshire, 1960)

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02 CA RDIGA NSH I R E Bodycolour and ink 12 x 14 1⁄2 inches Painted by 1961 Provenance: ‘The Shell Collection of Modern British Paintings’, Sotheby’s, 4 July 2002 Illustrated: ‘Shell County Guides’ poster (printed by C Nicholls), 1961; The Shilling Guides: Cardiganshire and Breconshire, London: Shell-Mex and BP, 1963, cover

‘A county of bulky hills – often roofed by clouds off Cardigan Bay – instead of mountains (though it includes Plynlimon, and though the great Welsh mountains show along the northern skyline), a county of cliffs, rough indentations (this view shows the coast at Ynys Lochtyn) and smooth-beached coves, of low white churches with bellcotes – here you see the one at Mwnt – of foxglove and bindweed, of buzzards which circle between sides of green, hugely deep valleys. Cornfields often come to the cliff edge; often a small long disused limekiln will stand above beach or cove.’

(Shell Guide to Cardiganshire, 1961)

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03 SH ET L A ND Watercolour and bodycolour 14 3⁄4 x 18 3⁄4 inches Painted by 1962 Provenance: ‘The Shell Collection of Modern British Paintings’, Sotheby’s, 4 July 2002 Illustrated: ‘Shell County Guides’ poster (printed by C Nicholls), 1962

‘the picture combines the Broch of Mousa and the later wheel-houses alongside what is left of the broch at Jarlshof.

Brochs were tower-houses raised by late Iron Age farmer-fishers from Cornwall and the south-west of England, in the first century AD. Later Celts (second and third centuries AD) built the wheel-houses. Later came the Vikings, and the bearded man of the foreground is a Viking, whose features were scratched on a stone slab excavated at Jarlshof.

Other objects are a Viking comb, a bowl and a brooch from St Ninian’s treasure hoard of local manufacture of about the eighth century, a Shetland knitted pullover, with the pattern of the Tree of Life, a spinning wheel, one of the small Shetland boats of the high-sterned kind derived from Norway, and one of the wooden collars worn by sheep to prevent them straying through the fences (leaning against a stack of peat). Above the wheel-houses flies an Arctic Tern. Beyond them swim and leap a school of White-sided Dolphins, the characteristic dolphin of the Shetlands.’

(Shell Guide to Shetland, 1962)

1962: Norway ‘I stayed with a Dutch doctor and his wife up in Harstad [on the island of Hinnøya, in northern Norway]. You could look across the strait to a particular line of cliffs, and these impressed me enormously, and I made many drawings and sketches of them. I must have spent some time in Harstad, and I later used a view of those cliffs in one of the Benjamin Britten memorial pictures [in 1976-77].’

(Keith Grant in conversation, 9 December 2010)

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04 L A NDSCA PE O F A L A N D S C A P E , H A R S TA D Signed, inscribed with title and dated 61/62 on reverse Oil on board 36 x 48 inches Provenance: Paintings in Hospitals Exhibited: New Art Centre, 41 Sloane St, London, April 1962; ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 1; ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2011, no 182

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1965: Sicily Keith Grant has made two trips to Sicily. The first took place in 1964, when he, his new wife, Gisèle, and her sister, Monique, ‘drove all the way down Italy from France – right the way down to the south’. A decade later, in September 1977, he took a group of his students, and they pitched tents in the grounds of a hotel on the slopes of Mount Etna.

While working up sketches that he had made on the first trip to Sicily, Keith recollected in his journal the experience of viewing Mount Etna: I remember watching the smoke issuing from the crater (I was at Taormina), interested and moved by the slow rhythmic beauty of the white smoke column against the sky. I bridged the distance between it and myself until I had separated all else from it. I felt myself a part of the blue atmosphere

and the swaying trunk of steam, peaceful like a lullaby, and yet an uneasy peace, charged with the ever present menace of sudden explosion. It was something compelling, fascinating, like a snake which is charmed. (in his journal, 3 March 1965) On the second trip, his head was full of Stéphane Mallarmé’s sensual poem, L’après-midi d’un faune, which is set on Sicily, and Claude Debussy’s symphonic Prélude, which it inspired. He remembers: I was very interested in L’après-midi d’un faune and the evocative music of Mount Etna, and the mood of it, and the Roman connection, and all sorts of echoes … from the Classical side of my interests …

I was fascinated by the places there they had developed, and Sicily was an amazing place for that. (in conversation, 9 September 2010)

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05 ET N A , S I CI LY Signed, inscribed with title and ‘To David + Geraldine with affection, Keith + Gisèle’, and dated 1965 and 20.6.66 Watercolour and bodycolour with oil pastel, ink and pencil on board 15 1⁄2 x 16 1⁄2 inches

1965-67: Iceland In the years 1956-57, while studying at the Royal College of Art, Keith Grant received encouragement from his teacher, Colin Hayes, to visit Iceland. It would be almost a decade before he did so, by which time he had developed his idea of the North through extensive experiences of Norway. Nevertheless, Keith remembers the first trip to Iceland, with his friend, Tony Buckingham, in 1965, as amazing … We went right the way round. We went to the very far north to Lake Mývatn. I made many, many drawings, and it cemented a love for Iceland, which I was able to develop … The volcanoes were extinct, of course, Helgafell and others of the volcanoes around Mývatn. And it was a strange new landscape, but that was also influential, because it was very dark and abstract, the contorted shapes of the lava, and the action of the lava and the sea …

Another volcano called Snæfellsjökull: ‘the snow mountains glacier’ I think that means. But that was the mountain chosen by Jules Verne for where Journey to the Centre of the Earth begins’. (in conversation, 9 December 2010) He returned to Iceland one year later in order to experience some significant volcanic eruptions of the south coast, on the Vestmannæyjar islands: I was teaching at Hornsey College of Art then, I remember, because I took their photographic assistant with me to take the photographs. We were given a small aeroplane, and so we flew around an island that had come out of the sea next to Surtsey.

It’s been washed away now. It was called Syrtlingur [Little Surtsey], and I’ve got some very dramatic pictures of that – movie pictures as well. (in conversation, 9 December 2010) 23

06 MIDNIG H T SUN, S URTS E Y Bodycolour and polymer on board 21 1⁄2 x 44 inches Provenance: Sir Frederick Gibberd Exhibited: ‘Keith Grant – The North Lands – Paintings’, Roland, Browse & Delbanco, 19 Cork St, London, 1967; ‘Keith Grant’, Rochdale City Art Gallery, September 1976, no 9; ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2011, no 26

Recording these flights in his journal, he made the following observation: An hour ago we flew again over the volcanic eruption near Surtsey. The billowing steam was rubbed with dirt, its whiteness burst by great black and brown protrusions of ascending lava and ash.

Like fingertips of giant hands rising out of the sea, black and stretching upwards, as if clawing for the top of the mushrooming clouds, and then relaxing and falling outwards in arcs and returning in graceful arcs into the sea. (in his journal, in the air, 20 May 1966)

07 I CEL A N D’ S AT L A N T I C Signed Inscribed with title and dated 1967 on reverse of original frame Bodycolour and charcoal 12 x 23 1⁄2 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2015, no 94

24 08 VO LCA N O A N D T H E M I DN I G H T S U N Signed, inscribed with title and ‘Iceland Series’, and dated 7/65, and further inscribed ‘To Tessa a souvenir of the backcloth for ITC from Keith with love’ and dated 8/65 below mount Bodycolour, ink and pastel 20 x 28 inches Provenance: Tessa Ewen Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2012, no 56 One of the designs for a production of Ingmar Bergman’s A Painting on Wood at the Lamda Theatre, September 1965

Among the many activities that he undertook between these two trips to Iceland, Keith designed the sets for a production of the one-act plays, A City and A Painting on Wood, by the Swedish writer and director, Ingmar Bergman. Indeed, his design for A Painting on Wood, for which the present work is a study, was inspired by the first trip. It can be considered as part of his project to paint Icelandic volcanoes at different phases of the sun, with each vertical division representing an hour of the day.

Finished works in the series include the oils, Surtsey: Tondo (Britten-Pears Foundation, Aldeburgh), and Lava Field (National Gallery of New Zealand, Wellington).

The City and A Painting on Wood were presented at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in September 1965, in a production directed by Arnold Fry and JeanPierre Voos. While Keith was responsible for the well-received sets, Paul Colbeck designed the costumes. Originally a radio play, A Painting on Wood was the work from which Bergman developed his famous film, The Seventh Seal (1957), in which a knight plays chess with a personification of death.

1969: Norway

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09 REFL ECTIONS I N A L A K E , N I G H T Signed, inscribed with title and dated ‘Nov/Dec 1969’ on reverse Oil on canvas 40 x 48 inches Provenance: Roland, Browse & Delbanco Exhibited: ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 2

10 R ED S U N S E T Signed and dated 1969 Oil on canvas over board 24 x 24 inches Provenance: Roland, Browse & Delbanco Exhibited: ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 4

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In 1969, Keith Grant was introduced, by the British Council, to Milada Tashnerova, a young Czech graphic design student who wanted to visit Norway. They travelled to the country together in September of that year, and Milada became the subject of a number of drawings that Keith made on the trip, as well as inspiring some significant, highly lyrical paintings.

11 MIL A DA A ND BI RC H G ROV E Signed Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated ‘Oct 69’ on backboard Oil on board, 13 x 14 inches Exhibited: Roland, Browse & Delbanco, 19 Cork St, London

During the trip, Keith and Milada visited Seljord, in Telemark, to look at a cottage that the local council was offering Keith as a studio. While there, Keith saw Milada looking out at him between birch trees, an image that not only suggested ‘a sense of mystery’ but also ‘encapsulated the notion of a forest deity’ (in conversation, 14 January 2016). This was the source of the present painting.

2: 1971-1981

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1971-73: Scotland

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12 COT TON G RA S S & C LOU D, S U TH E R L A N D Signed, inscribed with title and dated 71 Watercolour, bodycolour and ink 19 x 29 inches Provenance: Donated by the artist for sale on behalf of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation Exhibited: ‘Bernard Russell Centenary International Art Exhibition and Sale’, Rotonda Gallery, Finchley Road, London, December 1972-January 1973, no 516

In July 1971, as on a number of other occasions, Keith Grant stayed with the collector, Alan Roger, at Dundonnell House, Ross and Cromarty, in Scotland – just south of Sutherland. His stays inspired a number of works, including the ‘Dundonnell Series’ that is part of the larger sequence, ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’ (see pages 24-25).

While still at Dundonnell on 18 July, Keith made specific reference in his journal to cotton grass (the flowering sedge, Eriophorum): Yesterday the noise of falling water accompanied me during a long scramble on the flanks of An Teallach. The wind soughing among the cold stones

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13 H A IL STORM OV E R A N O RTH E R N I S L A N D Signed on stretcher Oil on canvas 40 x 50 inches Painted circa 1973 Exhibited: ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 7

and ploughing across plains of long grass to be lost in the far distance emphasised the loneliness I felt, but did more to remind me of my inactivity. The cotton grass nodding silken white heads and dotted the ground like huge individual snowflakes. I imagined a night sky star-full: the stars would have reflections, pallidly mimicking their brilliance and

with a sort of tethered dancing the grass would mock the immobility of stars. (in his journal, Dundonnell House, 18 July 1971) The mountain, An Teallach (Gaelic for ‘The Forge’) lies to the southwest of Dundonnell between Little Loch Broom and Loch na Sealga.

1971-73: The Narrow Road to the Deep North

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14 TH E NA RROW ROA D TO TH E D E E P N ORTH – N R NA RV IK ‘RA IN’ E V E N T H E L O N G R A I N O F M AY – H A S L E F T I T U N TO U C H E D – THIS GOLD CHAPEL, AGLOW IN THE SOMBRE SHADE – BASHO Signed, inscribed with title and dated 12/71 Ink, watercolour and oil, 11 1⁄4 x 7 3⁄4 inches Provenance: Alan Roger Collection Exhibited: Roland, Browse & Delbanco, 19 Cork St, London

15 TH E NA RROW ROA D TO TH E D E E P N ORTH : SUNSET IN SUT H E R L A N D Signed, inscribed with title and ‘Dundonnell Series II’, and dated ‘Oct 72’ Mixed media, 12 1⁄2 x 17 1⁄2 inches

16 COA S T AT M I D- DAY Signed on each stretcher A triptych, each panel inscribed with exhibition title on a label on reverse Oil on canvas Each 48 x 36 inches

Keith Grant has constantly enriched his experience and understanding of the North by engaging with the responses of other creative figures, and particularly composers and writers. One of the most important of these responses for him has been The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Matsuo Bash (1644-1694), in which the seventeenth-century Japanese poet described a journey using haibun, a literary form combining prose and haiku poetry. Though Bash ’s journey took place in the Oku region of Japan, Keith was able to use it as both a counterpoint and a control for his own travels in Scotland, Northern Ireland and especially Norway. ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’ became

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Exhibited: ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North: An Exhibition of Paintings by Keith Grant’,The Scottish Arts Council, Touring Exhibition, November 1973-April 1974, nos 13, 14 and 16; ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 6

the umbrella title for a group of works on paper, as represented by the present examples, which he discussed in his journal. While ‘planning a voyage to the far North in winter’ (17 October 1971), and specifically to Norway, he recorded that he was working on a series of watercolours and inks, each work being associated with a verse from Bash ’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North … The watercolours are among the best things I have produced: something of the humility of Bash ’s reflections upon nature and his sublime ordered expression have influenced them.

This triptych is part of the series entitled ‘Maritime Polar’.

I expect to be under this influence for some time for it is a key which has enabled me to pass through the first gate to my journey. (in his journal, 27 November 1971) The results appeared in his major exhibition – also called ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’ – which was organised by the Scottish Arts Council, and toured Edinburgh, Strathclyde, Milngavie and Aberdeen, between November 1973 and April 1974. The centrepiece of the exhibition was a series of 24 canvases representing a continuous horizon of the north Norwegian coastline, with each picture standing for one hour of the day.

1972-78: Norway Hammerfest is one of the most northerly towns in the world.

It was destroyed by the Germans late in the Second World War, leaving only the Hauen Chapel, which had been built in 1937.

17 NIG H T, H A MME R F E S T, N O RWAY Signed Watercolour, ink and varnish with acrylic, 17 x 24 1⁄2 inches Provenance: Roland, Browse & Delbanco

‘An hour and a quarter out from Hammerfest. The most incredible black mountains on either side of the boat.

Cloud penetrating deeply into fjords which divide these black walls of rock. Glaciers have broken between the mountains creating tetrahedrons and pyramids. They are black and marked with snow, long lines of white which descend at steep angles from the clouds to the sea.

Shapes of velvety black between the patterns of snow.’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, S S Nordstjernen, 15 January 1972)

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18 TWENTY DEG R E E S C BELOW ZERO, SVOLVA E R Signed Oil on canvas 48 x 84 inches Provenance: Logica Literature: Keith Grant, ‘The Magnetic North’, The Artist, June 1985, page 32

‘Twenty Degrees C Below Zero, Svolvaer is a painting of an isolated fjord in the Lofoten Islands near the capital of the island group, Svolvaer. I made many observations of the moonlit landscape over a month’s stay in midwinter. The all-pervading completeness of the cold I can still feel almost physically. I committed to memory the glimmering mountains patterned with ghostly detail and reflected on the still waters of the fjord. I also made many studies during the day when I was able to appreciate the immense yet subtle difference produced upon the reality of daylight by the night.’

(Keith Grant, ‘The Magnetic North’, The Artist, June 1985, page 31)

1973-76: Iceland In January 1973, Keith Grant heard on the radio news of a major volcanic eruption on Heimæy, the largest of Iceland’s Vestmannæyjar islands. Just a day later, he travelled to the country to experience this natural phenomenon, and would spend long periods there through 1973 and 1974, engaging with its environment.

19 SNOW PAT T ER N F R I E ZE B E H I N D OL D VO LC AN O ES – SNOW-MELT PO O L I N F OR E G ROU N D – I C E L A N D Signed, inscribed with title and ‘A/V’, and dated ‘June 73’ and ‘73 (July)’ Watercolour, bodycolour and ink on board 10 1⁄2 x 13 1⁄4 inches Exhibited: ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North: An Exhibition of Paintings by Keith Grant’, The Scottish Arts Council, Touring Exhibition, November 1973-April 1974, no 24

20 NEA R EG ILSSTAD I R – I C E L A N D Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1973 and 6/73 Watercolour, bodycolour, ink and pencil 5 3⁄4 x 6 3⁄4 inches Provenance: Prof Sir Grahame Clark, Master of Peterhouse College, Cambridge Exhibited: ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North: An Exhibition of Paintings by Keith Grant’, The Scottish Arts Council, Touring Exhibition, November 1973-April 1974, no 51; Roland, Browse & Delbanco, 19 Cork St, London; ‘Keith Grant’, Rochdale City Art Gallery, September 1976

The resulting paintings added ‘a vital dimension to his vision of the far north’ (Francis Kyle, ‘The Artist’s Gallery Guide – 1’, The Artist, May 1985, page 9) and led to a solo show at the National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, in February 1974, among other exhibitions.

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21 FOURTEEN STATI ON S O N A ROA D, I C E L A N D Signed on reverse Each board consecutively numbered ‘1’to ‘14’ Oil on 14 joined boards Each measuring 12 x 12 inches, 28 1⁄2 x 91 inches overall in frame Provenance: Mr & Mrs Norman Hyams

During a weekend in the May of 1973, Keith Grant spent time with the Edinburgh booksellers and publishers, Kulgin Duval and Colin Hamilton. He recorded in his journal, on 23 May, that he was ‘planning a painting’ for them and ‘also designed a chest for them’ which was to ‘have a painted panel’. While they were together, Duval and Hamilton ‘discussed the possibility that [Keith] might illustrate the Stations of the Cross’, a cycle of poems by their close friend, George Mackay Brown, which Peter Maxwell Davies had set to music as From Stone to Thorn.

The poem-cycle relates the actions of Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion to the seasons of the agricultural calendar.

Soon after the discussion, Keith reflected on the project in his journal: 14 Stations expressed by landscape perhaps, but what does it mean? I haven’t read McKay Brown’s version yet, but I have thought about the witness of cruelty and the stumblings of humanity which rise to

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wonderful heights at times, only to be cruelly beaten into the earth again. Must it always be like that until the final security is in death, the final sublimation of a history of sublime failures?

What shades of my former self are worth keeping?

How much will the last moment give to the future?’ (in his journal, Camden Studios, 23 March 1973) Despite these questions, or perhaps fuelled by them, Keith completed a series of paintings, rather than

illustrations, in the following ten months, which combined his response to Mackay Brown with his experience of Iceland. He considered Fourteen Stations on a Road, Iceland, ‘the most potent oils I have so far accomplished’ and ‘the most important series of works so far’. (in his journal, 5 March and 12 April 1974).

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22 ERUPT ION COLU MN R I S I N G F RO M TH E S E A Signed Oil on canvas 70 x 93 inches

In 1976, Keith Grant wrote in his journal: I feel the Volcano subject will not be exhausted for many years; indeed, it may become the central theme of my painting for the rest of my life. The spectacle of the huge eruption column uniting the sea with the sky or the land with the sky is still vivid in my memory.

The volcano is a symbol, not of the immanence of a cataclysmic destruction but of a dispassionate and violent reordering of elements. A metaphor for re-birth and hope for the future? Perhaps, but I want these new evocations of primordial force and limitless space to be reflections of my observations stated without emotional or any other sort of extravagance. (in his journal, 5 April 1976)

Though his wide-ranging curiosity about the natural world has militated against any one theme becoming central to his painting, Keith did find the volcanic eruptions on the Icelandic archipelago of Vestmannæyjar, in 1966 and 1973, particularly inspiring. While Eruption Column at 20,000 feet at Heimæy (1976, Fitzwilliam Museum) represents the union of ‘the land with the sky’, the present – more spectacular – work depicts a union of ‘the sea with the sky’, as a column of steam, gas and dust rises not only upwards but outwards from a crater that is disappearing beneath the waves. Both paintings are probably based on drawings made in 1973 in two sketchbooks held in the collections of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

1973-75: Ireland Between 1973 and 1975, Keith Grant made a number of sketching trips to Ireland, sometimes in the company of a friend, Phillida Ball, who shared his love for the country. His inclusion of Ireland in his topography of the North is indicated by the plans that he made for a quartet of paintings, The Four Seasons (1974), in which each season was to be represented by the islands of a northern country: In Norway the Lofotens or Traena; in Iceland either Heimæy or the islands of the North; in Scotland the Summer Isles, and in Ireland the Aran Isles. (in his journal, Stromness, Orkney, 26 May 1973) By 1975, Keith was spending extended periods on the west coast of Ireland, including County Sligo. His journal record of a visit to the impressive Sligo rock formation, Ben Bulben, is suggestive of his general responses to the region: The magic of Ireland is here, the mystery of it. The round forts everywhere, the cairns and standing stones, the greenness, and the greyness of the rain. (in his journal, 30 March 1975) And, as he set out to make a journey south to County Mayo, he wrote in a way that clearly shows that he was attuned not only to the natural environment but also to its cultural import:

23 R A I N I N G , S L I G O Signed and dated 4/75 Inscribed ‘Though I am old with wandering, through hollow lands and hilly lands/I will find out where she has gone, and kiss her lips and take her hands. W.B.Y.’ Inscribed with title and ‘9’ on backboard Watercolour, ink and pencil 10 1⁄4 x 6 3⁄4 inches Provenance: Alan Roger Collection

Two mountains may dominate this Irish journey, two symbols linking the past, active and acceptable with today: Ben Bulben glowering on the Church of Ireland which guards the shade of WBY [Yeats], and Croagh Patrick upon which hovers the ghost, holy or otherwise, of the slave from France who became Ireland’s patron saint. (in his journal, Journey to Croagh Patrick, 31 March 1975) Keith’s strong ability to respond simultaneously to what he sees and what he has read is demonstrated most strongly by his works on paper, including the present watercolours of Sligo.

The strong perspective of the road in Raining, Sligo, which draws the viewer towards the distant water, echoes lines from Yeats’s early Celtic poem, ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’ (1899). Similarly, the exposed panorama of hills and trees, in Rain in Sligo, rehearses the instinctive response of a peasant to the elements, as dramatised by P J Kavanagh in his long poetic protest, The Great Hunger (1942).

24 R A I N I N S L I G O W H O C A N R E A C T TO S U N A N D R A I N A N D S O M E T I M E S E V E N R E G R E T T H AT T H E M A K E R O F L I G H T H A D N O T TO U C H E D H I M M O R E I N T E N S E LY

– T H E G R E AT H U N G E R Signed, inscribed with title, and dated ‘Nov 2 – 75’ Watercolour with bodycolour 13 x 19 1⁄2 inches Provenance: Roland, Browse & Delbanco P K AVA N A G H

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1981: Scotland

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25 COA ST, L IG H T A N D R A I N , S COTL A N D Signed, inscribed with title and dated ‘June 81’ Signed, inscribed ‘Coast Nr Arbroath Scotland’ and dated 81 on backboard Watercolour on board 15 x 54 1⁄2 inches Provenance: Browse and Darby Exhibited: Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition, 1983

During his time as the Head of the Painting Department of Newcastle Polytechnic, between 1979 and 1981, Keith Grant took a group of students to Scotland. While there, he spent some time painting alone, producing the present watercolour among others. He was interrupted in his task by a boy with a shock of very dark hair who made some threatening remarks, and the finished work is charged with the atmosphere of this strange experience.

25 (detail)

3: 1982-1995

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1982-83: French Guiana

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In 1982, Keith Grant was invited to French Guiana to paint the first commercial launch of the rocket, Ariane 1.

The rocket had been developed by the European Space Agency, and was launched at the Centre Spatial Guyanais, near the coastal town of Kourou, on 10 September 1982.

His account of the launch appeared, as part of his ‘Notes from Kourou, F G’, in London Magazine in October 1984.

26 S PACE CEN T R E I N THE JUNGLE CS G KO U RO U 1 0 S E CS : A F T ER L AU N CH O F ARIANE 9/9/82 Signed, inscribed ‘Ariane above Kourou’ and dated 12/82 Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil on board 47 3⁄4 x 27 1⁄4 inches Provenance: Logica Exhibited: Salon international de l’aeronotique et de l’espace de Paris-Le Bourget, 1983

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27 ‘A RIA NE’ 1.5 SE C S : A F TE R L AU N C H Signed, inscribed with title, dimensions, ‘No 16’ and ‘seen from Carbet des Journalistes, Kourou’, and dated ‘Sept 82’ and ‘Jan 83’ on reverse Oil on board, 37 x 58 inches

Provenance: Logica Exhibited: Salon international de l’aeronotique et de l’espace de Paris-Le Bourget, 1983

‘The Launch We drove to the “Carbet des Journalistes” with ten other privileged guests. The police were strict and all roads around the site for a 5km radius were blocked. Not that there were many roads to block. The night sky was magnificent in the distance. The lights of The Centre Spatiale Guyanais glittered in the blackness. The Savanna spread out into the night with small fire flies flashing into prominence and then extinguishing their greenish/white light. They appeared like triangular pieces of luminous tinsel. These fire flies of the Savanna are not to be confused with the large glowing variety of the forests. As the TV cameras were being set up, a large tarantula spider began investigating the equipment. After being sprayed with insect repellant he was captured and put in a box. The loudspeaker under the tin roof of the Carbet started the countdown after we had waited for nearly two hours. At exactly 11.12pm GT Ariane lifted off. A white light followed by a red orange glow spread under the ascending rocket and out from the centre of the launch pad like rapidly unfolding wings of orange/white fire. The first seconds passed in complete silence, then the sound reached us, rising to a crescendo which vibrated the earth. Ariane was now ascending vertically, the four motors leaving short trails of blazing light against the blackness of the night sky. The first stage broke away and the second ignited in one fraction of the same moment. A divided vapour trail followed the second stage which after several seconds went out suddenly, then the third stage flared and ignited, alas too late to propel the two satellites into their orbits. This fact was unknown to me and the majesty of the launch was in no way diminished. I followed the third stage until it assumed the same resolution as the stars and then until it disappeared lost to sight among the glittering multitudes of distant suns.’

(Keith Grant, ‘Notes from Kourou, F G’, London Magazine, October 1984, pages 50-52)

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28 SPACE SERIES , 1 9 8 3 ( I ) Signed and dated 83 Oil on board 18 x 18 inches

29 S PACE S ER I ES , 1 9 8 3 ( I I ) Signed and dated 83 Oil on board 18 x 18 inches

30 SPACE SERIES , 1 9 8 3 ( I I I ) Signed and dated 83 Oil on board 18 x 18 inches

31 S PACE S ER I ES , 1 9 8 3 ( I V ) Signed and dated 83 Oil on board 18 x 18 inches

32 T ROPICA L NEW MOO N , KOU ROU Signed, inscribed with title, dimensions and medium, and dated ‘Oct/82’ on reverse Acrylic and ink on board 17 3⁄4 x 19 inches Provenance: Browse and Darby, as ‘Tropical New Moon, Kourou, French Guiana’

‘The trip to French Guiana was my first confrontation with that kind of jungle scenery, and some of my best jungle pictures come from that trip, the sound of the jungle being converted into visual images. The jungle is certainly not a silent place.’

(Keith Grant in conversation, 14 January 2016)

34 EQ UATORIA L N E W M OON A ND FORE S T Signed with initials and dated 83 Signed, inscribed with title and ‘French Guiana’, and dated 83 on original backboard Acrylic and ink, 16 1⁄4 x 21 1⁄2 inches Provenance: Phipps and Company

33 P U M A F EN CE N I G H T- EQ UATO R I A L R A I N F O R ES T Signed, indistinctly inscribed with title and dated 8/2/83 Watercolour with bodycolour and ink on two pieces of paper, squared for transfer 14 1⁄2 x 20 1⁄4 inches

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1985: Sarawak Following his trip to French Guiana, South America in 1982, Keith Grant made two visits to Sarawak, Malaysia, in 1984 and 1985. Though these countries are on a similar line of latitude, Keith was struck by their differences, as is suggested by the phrase ‘Between Two Extremes’, which was used as the title of an exhibition of his paintings and drawings of the two places, held at the New Metropole Arts Centre, Folkestone, in 1986.

However, Keith remained even more aware of the much stronger contrast between the North and the Tropics, and of his differing relationships with them. He articulated these differing relationships in the records that he made of his journeys to French Guiana and Sarawak:

In the North I am an observer, the pageantry of the sky instills meditation in a solemn reflection upon the order of nature. In the jungle I am a participant active in an enclosed environment. All senses engaged. (Keith Grant, ‘Notes from Kourou, F G’, London Magazine, October 1984, page 44) In the North I am conscious of light and space, of a limitlessness inhabited by elemental forms; in the rain forests of French Guiana and especially of Sarawak this is reversed. I am an observer of minutiae, of leaf-crowded space and of animate life.

(Keith Grant, ‘A Doomed Idyll’, The Artist, July 1985, page 22)

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35 F I S H T R A P S N EA R G U NU NG S A N T U B O N G , S A R AWA K Signed, inscribed with title and dated 4/85 Signed, inscribed with title and medium, and dated 85 on reverse Acrylic on board 11 1⁄2 x 15 1⁄2 inches Provenance: Francis Kyle Gallery

‘Kuching I went by launch to the Damai Beach today and took many photographs of [Mount] Santubong dramatically wreathed in cloud. I have decided to paint the mountain from the river which is very broad at the point at which the mountain is at its most interesting, compositionally. I will also use one of the fish traps in the foreground. These structures are very beautiful, being built from slender upright poles with many cross ties and diagonals. The net, a long oblong, hangs within the supports. The nets are a delicate emerald green which harmonizes with the background of Niper palms and small trees. The traps give a cubistic frame effect. We travelled over the water at 100kph, the pilot navigating his way round floating logs and the wake of other vessels and hardly reducing speed.’

(Keith Grant, ‘Extracts from a Sarawak Journal’, London Magazine, April/May 1990, page 64)

1988-89: Israel

37 T H E S EA O F G A L I L EE – N O RT H S H O R E – A F T ER N O O N H EAT – I S R A EL Signed, inscribed with title and dated ‘May 88’ Oil pastel, 16 1⁄2 x 20 inches 36 IN ISRA EL , SEA O F G A L I L E E Signed, inscribed with title and dated 6/5/88 Oil pastel, 16 x 20 inches Nos 36-39 were all exhibited at Cadogan Contemporary, London, Autumn 1988

‘The artist’s visit to Israel was the inspiration of Norman Hyams, one of Grant’s most staunch patrons and owner of some of his best paintings. As an admirer of the Norwegian and tropical landscapes in particular, he wondered how Grant would respond to painting the deserts of Israel. The visit lasted for just over four weeks in April/May 1988, when Grant was given leave of absence from his position as head of the art department at Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, and was sponsored by the British Israel Art Foundation, which promotes Israeli culture, and the Ben Gurion University Trust.’

(Ian Simpson, ‘Keith Grant in Israel’, The Artist, June 1989, page 12)

‘He made a series of 16 oil pastels around the shores of Lake Galilee, done, unusually for him, from direct observation. He hadn’t intended to do so before leaving England, and had only taken oil pastels with the intention of using them to make colour notes.’

(Ian Simpson, ‘Keith Grant in Israel’, The Artist, June 1989, page 13) 39 ISRA EL PINES AT S A F E D – N I G H T Signed, inscribed with title and dated ‘May 88’ Signed ‘Love Keith’, inscribed ‘To Sue with many thanks for all your help, kindness and hard work during the reign of the KGB when I was hod [Head of Department] and hoping for many more years of our working relationship now I am anti-hod, post hod, a in res’ and dated ‘July 1990’ on reverse ‘Around the shores of Lake Galilee, Israel XV’ inscribed on label on reverse Oil pastel, 19 1⁄4 x 16 inches

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38 T H E EA S T ER N S H O R E O F G A L I L EE Signed, inscribed with title and ‘Israel’, and dated ‘May 7 88’ Oil pastel, 16 1⁄2 x 23 inches

Israel Keith Grant wanted to spend time near the Negev Desert, so stayed for about a week in Be’er Sheva, the largest city in the region.

The name means ‘Well of the Oath’ or ‘Well of Seven’, and derives from the well dug by the biblical patriarch, Abraham. As stated in the Book of Genesis, the well was taken by King Abimelech’s men, but was returned to Abraham when he set aside seven lambs to swear that it was he who had dug the well.

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40 BE’ER SH EVA NI G H T I S R A E L Signed, inscribed with title and dated 89 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 89 on reverse Oil on board 34 x 26 inches Literature: The Artist, June 1989, front cover Exhibited: ‘Keith Grant: Paintings of the Arctic and the Desert’, Crane Kalman Gallery, 178 Brompton Rd, London, February-March 1990; ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2015, no 101

1987-89: Norway 41 SNOW -12ºC Signed and inscribed with title and ‘Lofoten Series’ Signed, inscribed with title, dimensions, ‘Lofoten Series’ and ‘Gallery North No 6’, and dated ‘May 87’ on original backboard Acrylic and bodycolour, 8 1⁄2 x 14 1⁄4 inches Provenance: Phipps and Company Probably exhibited at Gallery North, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2015, no 99

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42 ISL A NDS OF TH E N ORTH ‘LOFOTEN ISL A ND S ’ Signed and dated 87 and ’89 Oil on board, 41 1⁄4 x 47 1⁄4 inches

Provenance: Cadogan Contemporary Exhibited: Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition, 1989, no 859, as ‘Lofoten Islands, Norway’

1989: Greenland ‘I begin to think of the Iceberg as a more potent form between sea and sky than that of the marine volcano.

But both phenomena are sublime essays in power and transience and both have an elegant causal being in relationship to water.’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, Elne, Roussillon, 5 August 1989)

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43 ICEBERGS IN DI S KO BAY Signed and inscribed with title and ‘AK no 2’ on reverse Oil on board, 28 1⁄2 x 58 1⁄4 inches

Provenance: Crane Kalman Gallery Literature: Frances Spalding, 20th Century Painters and Sculptors, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1990, page 213

‘Awoke and rose at 6.30. The sky had cleared and a brilliant cold sunlight is now reflected from the hundreds of Icebergs in Disko Bay. The clouds have lifted and the great snow-clad mountains of Disko Island lie shimmering 60 miles away. Snow patterns and the detailing of rock is clearly visible and some grey/rose strands of cloud lie in the ruled lines before the island’s walls throwing bars of shadow here and there.

Evening. I have spent the day at the Ice-Fjord observing the great icebergs lying some 5 or 6 hundred yards from the coastal rocks. All is changed from yesterday. Today a warm and brilliant sun illuminated the ice into cascades of reflections and subtle shades of mauves, blue and green. The 200 or so feet of the ice-cliffs looked unbelievably high and the glorious day belied the menace lurking in the cold deep recesses of the subterranean mass. It is an amazing fact that an iceberg which protrudes above the surface of the water for 200 feet must draw a stupendous “keel” of somewhere near 800 feet of depth … The shadows on the icebergs are mainly of blue but of all expressions of blueness. I think of [Gerald Manley] Hopkins’ line “the glass blue days are those when all the colour glows” and know I have never imagined such colours before. They are beyond all I have seen in Poussin and Claude, in Tiepolo and Titian. As the sun changes position relative to the Iceberg aquamarines, turquoises, emeralds, opals and cobalts suffuse every surface. The relationship between the delicacy of the colours and the physical mass, the enormity of the Ice-berg is a perfect, natural resolution of the affinity of opposites.’ (in his journal, Hotel Hvide Falk, Jakobshavn/Ilulissat, 1 September 1989)

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44 ICEBERG S DRIF TI N G S E AWA R D S , E VENING ILUL ISSAT Signed and dated 89 Signed, inscribed with title and dated 89 on reverse Oil on canvas over board 50 x 60 inches Provenance: Crane Kalman Gallery; Mark Hawtin, Bolton, 1990 Literature: Modern Painters, Spring 1990. page 9, as ‘Ice-Fjord, Evening, Jacobshavn’ Exhibited: ‘Paintings of the Arctic and the Desert’, Crane Kalman Gallery, 178 Brompton Rd, London, February-March 1990; ‘Ice and Fire.

Paintings by Keith Grant’, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1994, no 27; ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 8; ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2010, no 272

This painting was based on a detailed sketchbook drawing made by the artist on his 1989 visit to Greenland. The sketchbook is now in the collection of The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

‘In the afternoon before boarding the plane for Sondre Stromfjord I attempted belatedly to compile a dictionary of the most prominent Icebergs I could see from just below the Jakobshavn Hospital looking out over Disko Bay. I completed two pages in my sketch book and they are the most valuable drawings I have made. I intend to make a comparison of them with [the nineteenthcentury American painter, Frederic Edwin] Church’s work when I return.’ (in his journal, Jakobshavn/Ilulissat, 5 September 1989)

1989: England

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45 T H E N O RT H S EA , A L DEBU RGH, MORNING Signed and dated 5/89 Signed, inscribed with title, medium, dimensions, ‘AK No 31’ and ‘In memory of Guy Howard’, and dated 89 on reverse Oil on canvas 32 x 21 inches

‘The two oil paintings of 1989 I have always thought of as a “paean” to the North Sea, and also a tribute to Ben Britten, with especial reference to his “Sea Interludes” from Peter Grimes, the beauty of which is ever associated with the North Sea. The paintings are heavily impastoed to convey the power of the maritime scene as I have witnessed it at all seasons from the windows of the house belonging to my friends, Iris and Nigel Weaver, on the Aldeburgh seafront. My personal association with Peter Pears and Ben Britten has informed every brush-stroke of these works.’

(Keith Grant, in a statement, June 2014)

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46 TH E N O RT H S EA , A L DEB U RG H , EV EN I N G Signed and dated 89 Signed, inscribed with title and ‘Tribute to Guy Howard’, and dated 89 on reverse Oil on canvas 32 x 21 inches

1992: Venezuela

Keith Grant developed a passion for waterfalls in 1991, during an expedition to Kaieteur, in the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, which was encouraged by David Attenborough.

Soon after, in January 1992, Grant joined seven other artists on an expedition to Venezuela with Living Earth, a conservation organisation now known as Earthlife.

In a pair with John Norris Wood, he stayed with the indigenous Pémon people, in the Gran Sabana, the region known to the British public through Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel, The Lost World (1912). Central to this experience was a long trek into the rain forest to see Salto Ángel (Angel Falls), the highest waterfall in the world, with a plunge of 2,647 feet from the table-top mountain, Auyantepui (Devil’s Mountain in the Pémon language). However, the present composition was based on the view of Salto Aicha, another of the mountain’s falls, as seen from a small aeroplane.

47 S A LTO A I TCH A Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1/92 Oil pastel 20 1⁄4 x 15 1⁄4 inches Exhibited: ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 9

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1995: Norway

48 T H E N I G H T Signed twice, inscribed with title, ‘Green Aurora ... Norway’ and ‘Aurora behind Gathering Clouds’, and dated 4/95 and 10/5/95 Acrylic and ink on paper laid down on board 9 3⁄4 x 16 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2011, no 29

4: 2004-2014

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2004-06: Antarctica

In 2001-2, Keith Grant visited Antarctica on the inaugural Artists and Writers Programme of the British Antarctic Survey, travelling on its research vessel, the James Clark Ross. Arriving during the Antarctic Summer, he was struck particularly by the silence and the light, the sun appearing as ‘a great flaring disc on the horizon’ (in conversation, 14 January, 2016).

49 T H E A L BAT RO S S A N D T H E S U N Signed Signed and inscribed with title and ‘To Iain and Hilary many thanks – Keith May 04’ on reverse Oil on canvas 10 3⁄4 x 10 3⁄4 inches 50 EN T ER I N G T H E S O U T H ER N O CEA N Signed Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated ‘Repainted 29/30 Sept 06 + 30th.11.06’ on stretcher Oil on canvas 38 1⁄2 x 51 1⁄2 inches

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51 SCENES FROM A VOYAG E Signed Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 2003/4 on reverse Oil on four joined canvases Each measuring 11 x 11 inches, 26 x 26 inches overall in frame

2007: Greenland

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52 F O U R S TA NZAS O F T H E A RCT IC M O O N , I LU L I SS AT, I Acrylic on four joined boards Each measuring 5 x 5 inches, 22 1⁄2 x 22 1⁄2 inches overall in frame Painted in 2007 Exhibited: ‘Keith Grant.

Snow, Sea and Stars’, Partridge Fine Art, 144 New Bond St, London, May 2008; ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 21

‘It was as if reviewing a line of “dreadnought forms”, massive flanks of icebergs which spanned the width of the ice fjords’ seaward approach. These dangerously close flotillas seemed assembled at the behest of some imprudent and injudicious admiral. Catastrophe appeared imminent. The light was fading and the faces of the ice-cliffs appeared in soft tones of battleship grey tinged with a not more than pallid warmth of rose hue from the recently departed sun.

The palest of greens and blues, mauves and pinks suffused the overall greyness of the ridge or skyline of ice – unexpectedly a narrow segment of light rose centrally above the ice quickly becoming the upper circumference of the moon. It became a half-circle of pale yet intense orange light and then rapidly as the small boat ran parallel to the now glittering walls of ice the entire disc of the moon rose and soon was free of the eclipsing cliffs. The moon then seemed to slow its ascent and hung in a pale, orange splendour of light which glinted on the razor edges of the ice and was reflected in the still sea. The effect was humbling. I wondered at my openness to be affected by this undoubtedly romantic beauty but resolving at the same time to use this wonderful, visionary experience in my forthcoming work.’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, 8 October 2006: a reflection on the last stage of the boat journey on the evening of 7 October 2006)

2009: Norway ‘Another aspect of the forest paintings developed today; that of a rushing river coursing between immobile rocks and trees. The new work is inspired by a river about 20 minutes drive east of Odda. In the background is the great glacier Folgefonn, the source of most of the waterfalls in this region.’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, 7 July 2008)

57 53 TH E FOREST RI V E R , SP RING EL EGY Signed and dated 08/9 Signed, inscribed ‘Forest River’ and dated 08/9 on reverse of frame Oil on canvas 39 1⁄2 x 27 3⁄4 inches Exhibited: ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 38

‘The “waterfall” work is slowly nearing completion. The depiction of moving water in relation to the stillness I have created in the forest area of the composition is an almost impossible task.

The waterfall and pool surrounded by rocks is two thirds of the design and finding a painterly solution which does not separate it from the upper part of the canvas but yet having the distinctive fluidity of water as opposed to the immobility of the trees and rocks will engage me for some time yet.’ (in his journal, 25 September 2008)

54 F O R ES T R I V ER EL EG Y Signed and dated 09 Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2009 on reverse Oil on board 15 1⁄4 x 19 inches Exhibited: ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 41

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‘Today I was encouraged by creating an effect of a work dividing a forest vista. The fact that I did not try to simulate the actual appearance of the stream but found an equivalent which is as an abstraction of water as the overhanging tapestry of the forest is an abstraction of trees, foliage and undergrowth.’ (in his journal, 15 April 2009)

55 F O R ES T S T R EA M Signed and dated 09 Inscribed with title and dated 2009 on reverse Oil on canvas 19 3⁄4 x 19 3⁄4 inches Exhibited: ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 40

2009-2010: Faroe Islands ‘ “The Bay of Birds” has convinced me that birds ought to play a more important role in my next compositions. I need to study more in the field so that the birds become integral to the landscape and not superimposed onto it. In the same way as Messiaen’s and Rautavaara’s birds become music. I need to visit bird sanctuaries in the North and am planning to do so.’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, Gvarv, 12 March 2009)

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56 TH E BAY O F B I R DS , FA RO ES Signed and dated 09 Oil on canvas 51 x 35 1⁄2 inches Exhibited: ‘Keith Grant: Elements of the Earth’, March-April 2010, no 55

60 57 T H E SEA A N D TH E S TA I RC A S E , MO O N BAY, N I G H T Signed twice, inscribed with title and ‘(for Roy)’, and dated 6/10 and 2010 Signed, inscribed with title and dimensions, and dated 2010 on stretcher Oil on canvas 47 1⁄2 x 87 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2011, no 33

‘The large “Day” painting dedicated now to the memory of Caroline Neill is completed. I have hung it on the large wall in the studio next to “Night” on which I have written “for Roy”. Both paintings are 120 x 225 cm and I would hope that they might not be separated, though to find a buyer for these “twins” might prove difficult. I have a profound sense of relief that I have achieved at the age of 80 two canvasses of these dimensions upon which I have worked for months often to the point of exhaustion. I leave any comments on the quality of these works to others not saying that I would need two life-times to be able to act upon the many lessons I have learned from my engagement with the two compositions. The first, “Night”, like “Day”, is considered as of the “Sea and the Staircase series” of paintings, a theme which I intend to continue for as

61 58 T H E SEA A ND TH E S TA I RC A S E , DAY Signed, inscribed ‘Day’ and ‘In Memoriam Caroline Neill’, and dated ‘Nov 2010’ Signed, inscribed with title and dimensions and dated 2010 on stretcher Oil on canvas 47 1⁄2 x 87 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2011, no 34

long as possible. The work I have just completed underwent many changes – especially the harbour area water which proved the greatest problem and challenge of the canvas. I finally disturbed the valedictory mood of the tremorless inner sea to one of chastened, silver ripples, which relate to the handling of the rest of the painting being a more plausible expression of the roughness of the ocean beyond the harbour walls to the relative calmness within them.

Certainly, however this work is judged, it is I feel the best of me and as I wrote previously of “Night” it comes the closest I can expect to my masterwork.’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, 18 November 2010)

2010-13: Norway

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59 AURORA FOR J OA N N A I I R ED PL A NET WIT H C R E S C E N T AU ROR A Signed and dated 8/10 Signed, inscribed with subtitle and dated 8/10 on reverse Oil on canvas 35 x 45 1⁄4 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2013, no 73

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60 GREEN AUROR A OV E R S H A L LOWS Signed Signed twice, inscribed with title, dimensions and ‘Gathering Blizzards’, and dated 11/12/2010 on stretcher Oil on canvas 35 3⁄4 x 47 1⁄2 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2011, no 35

61 AU RO R A , CO ME T A N D S TA R S OVE R B EACO N RO CK Signed and dated 5/11 Oil and acrylic on card 13 1⁄4 x 17 1⁄2 inches

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62 YEL LOW MIDNI G H T S U N Signed and dated 5/11 Signed, numbered ‘2’ and inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated ‘May 2011’ on reverse Acrylic and ink 9 1⁄2 x 14 1⁄2 inches

63 S M A L L M A R I T I M E S U N S ET Signed and dated 6/11 Signed, numbered ‘20’ and inscribed with title and dimensions, and dated 2011 on reverse Acrylic and ink 4 3⁄4 x 4 1⁄4 inches

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64 A RCTICUM STE L L I S Signed and dated 12/13 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated ‘4/12, considerably altered 16, 17, 18 June 2012’ and ‘Dec 2013’ on stretcher Oil on canvas 47 1⁄4 x 59 inches

‘I have totally repainted “Proscenium Arcticus” which becomes “Arcticum Stellis”, only the depiction of the islands reminds me of the former work. I have begun the work-intensive process of painting hundreds of stars one by one.

But as this tapestry of the night develops I hope it will provide the observer through focused looking, luminous patterns; the structure of the night sky. Already in some areas pinpoints of light are forming “swings of pearls” linking the stars writing their signatures on the night.’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, 19 December 2013)

2012: Myth and Nature

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65 PH OENIX Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1/12 Signed, inscribed with title, dimensions and ‘Triptych of the North I’, and dated 1/2012 on reverse Oil on canvas 35 x 45 1⁄2 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2012, no 68

66 R AG N A RO K (opposite) Signed, inscribed with title and dated 3/12 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 2/2012 on reverse Oil on canvas over board 27 1⁄4 x 27 1⁄4 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2012, no 70

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In Norse mythology, Ragnarök comprises a series of future events, including a great battle that would ultimately result in the death of a number of significant protagonists (notably the gods Freyr, Heimdallr, Loki, Odin, Thor and Týr), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world.

The world would then resurface fresh and fertile, the

surviving and reborn gods would meet, and two human survivors would begin to repopulate it. Ragnarök is described in the thirteenth-century Icelandic sagas, The Poetic Edda and The Prose Edda. The title and its apocalyptic import influenced the title and action of Götterdämmerung (1876), the last of the four operas of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.

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67 NEST Signed and dated 8/12 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated ‘Aug/Sept 2012’ on stretcher Oil on canvas 39 1⁄2 x 47 1⁄2 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2014, no 119

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68 PERSEPH ONE ( S U MME R) Signed, inscribed with title and dated 10/12 Signed, inscribed with medium, dimensions and ‘Nest’, and dated 2012 on stretcher Oil on canvas 45 1⁄2 x 51 1⁄4 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2013, no 75

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69 TEMPEST AT BI R D I S L A N D ( F U G LOY ) Signed and dated 4/2012 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 4/2012 on backboard Acrylic and ink with watercolour 8 x 21 3⁄4 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2012, no 64

69 (detail)

2012-14: Writer’s Block

70 OL IVE A ND DO ME D C AC TU S AT WR I TE R ’ S B LO CK Signed, inscribed with title and dated 12/7/2012 Pencil, 11 3⁄4 x 15 1⁄2 inches

71 O L I V E T R EE G ROV E AT W R I T ER ’ S B LO CK Signed, inscribed with title and dated 12/7/2012 Pencil, 11 3⁄4 x 15 1⁄2 inches

‘Arrived at Mary and Jeffrey Archer’s home …

I am fascinated by the many ancient olive trees, 300 years old or more, which Jeffrey has had brought to this garden. They are set formally, landscaped in fact in precise geometrical order.

And it is this formalism which interests me since the trees themselves are of such distinctive personality that the savageness of their origins cannot be lost. I would like to contrast this wildness with the geometrical shapes of the formalised setting for these knotty Tri-centenarians.’

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(Keith Grant, in his journal, ‘Writer’s Block’, Sa Torre, Mallorca, 11 July 2012)

‘Drawing these wonderful old trees begins as a discipline … I hope to give some semblance of the reality I am experiencing. The foliage of the olive trees is very complex – not the leaf form of course but the disposition of the lights and darks – the sense of depth through the barrier of sunlit leaves to the dark-shadowed areas behind is an almost insurmountable problem for pencil and crayon. I feel I will have to settle for approximations; a system of marks conveying a

72 O L I V E T R EE AT W R I T ER ’ S B LO CK Signed, inscribed with title and dated 11/7/2012 Pencil, 11 3⁄4 x 15 1⁄2 inches

sense of space confined to the prescribed sight-lines this garden offers me. I have completed the drawing I began this morning – a second Olive Tree Grove – but in this latest work there is an abstract or near abstract pattern woven into the intricacies.’ (in his journal, ‘Writer’s Block’, Sa Torre, Mallorca, 12 July 2012)

74 B RO N Z E N Y M P H AT ‘ W R I T ER S B LO CK ’ Signed, inscribed with title and dated 6/7/2014 Pencil, 11 x 16 inches

73 O L I V E T R EE A N D CACT U S AT W R I T ER ’ S B LO CK Signed, inscribed with title and dated 7.7.2014 Pencil, 16 1⁄2 x 11 inches

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76 S TAT U E AT T H E EN T R A N CE TO T H E W R I T ER ’ S S T U DY Signed, inscribed with title and dated ‘8 July 2014’ Pencil, 11 x 16 1⁄2 inches

75 S TAT U E O F A G I R L AT W R I T ER ’ S B LO CK Signed, inscribed with title and dated 8/7/2014 Pencil, 16 1⁄2 x 11 inches

78 PAT H TO T H E AU T H O R ’ S S T U DY, W R I T ER ’ S B LO CK Signed, inscribed with title and dated 5/7/2014 Pencil, 11 x 16 1⁄2 inches

77 EXOT I C T R EE AT W R I T ER ’ S B LO CK Signed, inscribed with title and dated 4/7/2014 Pencil, 16 1⁄2 x 11 inches

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‘While I was drawing, I became aware that the sculpture of a girl was life-like, despite its bronze patina! I did muse on what the difference would be to the technique of the drawing if the figure had been a real life model!!

I sensed as strongly on the second visit the “sacred grove” of Greek mythology suggested by the grouping of the ancient olive trees in the Archers’ formal garden.’ (in a statement, February 2016)

‘Our last day here … If I were a prisoner here I can see, if I only had this subject before me, how eventually I would produce paintings of impressionist formalism which could easily contain every light and space induced thought.

The plants which are so strikingly of individual identities would have to give way to the abstract geometry of this formal garden and take on through a unifying dissolution the mantle of light which is wedded to the very air. Painting with my

79 O L I V E T R EE AT W R I T ER ’ S B LO CK Signed, inscribed with title and dated 7.7.2014 Pencil, 11 x 16 1⁄2 inches

inner imagination, certain aspects of the olives, succulents, cacti and palm may still be discernible enough to bestow a glimpse of their character within my compositions but only unchallengeably conform to the authority that colour and dimension exercises over the expanse of the scene before me.’ (in his journal, ‘Writer’s Block’, Sa Torre, Mallorca, 17 July 2012)

2013: Studies from Imagination

80 STUDIES FROM I MAG I N ATI ON N O 3 M A RITIME CACOP H O N Y Signed and dated 5/13 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions on reverse Acrylic and ink on panel 4 1⁄2 x 12 inches

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81 STUDIES FROM I MAG I N ATI O N N O 6 A MA RITIME VISIO N Signed and dated 6/13 Signed twice, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 6/2013 twice on reverse Acrylic and wax pencil on panel 5 1⁄2 x 15 inches

2013: New English Series

82 T H E SOUNDING WO O D Signed and dated 8/13 Signed, inscribed with medium, dimensions and ‘New English Series II’, and dated ‘Sept/2013’ on reverse Acrylic with ink 13 x 9 inches

83 NORTH ERN INTE R LUD E Signed and dated 9/13 Signed, inscribed with medium, dimensions and ‘New English Series IX’, and dated ‘Sept/2013’ on reverse Acrylic 11 3⁄4 x 12 1⁄2 inches

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84 RO B I N S ’ D OMA I N WI TH G A ZEB O Signed, inscribed with title and dated 10/13 Signed, inscribed with medium, dimensions and ‘New English Series XII’, and dated ‘Oct: 2013’ on reverse Acrylic and calligraphic ink with wax pencil 12 3⁄4 x 9 1⁄2 inches

85 BUL L FINCH A N D WREN A MID HEAV Y FOL IAGE Signed and dated 11/13 Signed and inscribed with title, medium, dimensions and ‘The New English Series XIX’ on reverse Acrylic 8 1⁄2 x 12 1⁄2 inches

86 NIGH T ING A L E Signed and dated 11/13 Signed, inscribed with title, medium, dimensions and ‘New English Series No XX’, and dated ‘Nov 2013’ on reverse Acrylic with charcoal 10 x 13 3⁄4 inches

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2014: Moonlight and Oracle

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‘This canvas began from the small Moonlight, Wenlock Wood (17 x 31cm), No 15 in the New English series, but became a combination of the inspiration I derived from revisiting places in Shropshire I experienced as a student in the late 50s with my recent explorations of the forests near my home in Norway. The painting Moonlight has developed into a more general “metaphysical” portrait of the night.

Mentors for the mood of this work might be Blake, Palmer, Nash and Braque but only as fleeting ghosts.

The process of painting aims at a biological and organic representation of entities in the composition which are secondary to the means by which they are expressed. But these entities are none-the-less derived from reality in the form of fungi, leaves, husks, birds, grubs and the detritus of the forest’s winter closure.’

87 M O O N L I G H T Signed and dated 21.1.14 Signed, inscribed with title, address and dimensions, and dated ‘Jan: 2014’ on reverse Oil on canvas over board 24 1⁄2 x 45 1⁄2 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2014, no 126

88 A CO N F U S I O N O F M O O N L I G H T (opposite above) Signed and dated ‘Feb/2014’ Signed, inscribed with title and ‘I love it when you write of painting a meaning which transcends subject. That and the mysterious reality of minuteness and the physical properties of paint – I’m sure that’s the way your work lies, in further investigation of these qualities ...

Andrew Lambirth in a letter to KG dated 23.1.2014’, and dated ‘Feb/2 2014’ on reverse Acrylic with oil pastel and wax pencil 12 x 14 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2014, no 131

(Keith Grant, in a statement) 89 O R ACL E (opposite below) Signed and dated 2/2014 Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2/2014 on reverse Acrylic with oil pastel and wax pencil 11 3⁄4 x 14 inches

‘I have completed a small work which I call “A Confusion of Moonlight”. It combines the expressionistic, abstract and figurative qualities I have been exploring in the work of the last two years or so. It also incorporates the beginnings of a newer investigation into smallness and the physical properties of acrylic paint, ink and other graphic mediums … There is fortuity but I use the unexpected forms generated to further develop meaning and to prompt my visual memory ... I believe that the unease in my work is not theatrical but shamanistic in a spiritual sense and atavistic in a real sense. The moods and environments I create are fantasies drawn from those fleeting probings of the unknown, which assail even the most pragmatic hold on reality.’ (in his journal, 2 February 2014)

‘[Oracle] is advancing and again is a subject to be transcended in meaning by the very process of painting it.Yet there is a strong subjective theme that of the exhalation of noxious fumes which contaminates so much of our lovely earth turning it into the worst image of hell possible. I call the work “Oracle” and the vegetable volutes of emerging forms mimic Doric decoration to give a strange and productive classical note.’ (in his journal, 3 February 2014)

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2014: Rock Horses

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90 ROCK H ORSES Signed and dated 4/2014 Signed, inscribed with title and ‘Vesterålen’, and dated 4/14 and ‘April 2014’ on stretcher on reverse

Oil on canvas 32 x 43 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2014, no 133

‘The composition has engaged all my faculties … over the past ten days or so. I have been involved in the intensest struggle to invest the subject with a surrealistic interpretation ... A materiality used goes beyond any recent work of mine and in fact harks back to the 60s and early seventies. The structure of the work pretends to a spatial box containing all the elements used save where the peak breaks through an invisible, transparent ceiling. The idea came from my observing natural rock formations, which disconcertingly resembled a bas-relief of a horse.’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, 1 April 2014)

‘completed the composition which for over two weeks has bound me to its realization by a process of heavier and heavier layers of paint. But I have achieved density, a measurable depth and yet a transparency of a kind I have not succeeded in creating before.’ (in his journal, 8 April 2014)

91 TH E ROCK H O R S E AND T H E MOUNTA I N Signed and dated 6/2014 Signed, inscribed with title and dated ‘June 2014’ on reverse Oil and acrylic on prepared board 15 x 19 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2015, no 104

92 T WO ROCK H O R S E S WIT H PYRA MID P E A K Signed, inscribed with title and dated 6/2014 on reverse Oil on canvas 11 x 15 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2015, no 105

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2014: Cyprus

93 A BIBLICAL LANDSCAPE IN CYPRUS Signed and dated 14 Signed, inscribed ‘Biblical View in Cyprus’ and dated 10/14 on stretcher Oil on canvas 9 1⁄4 x 12 3⁄4 inches

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94 MR KOZA K’S BU G G Y MI R RO R Signed and dated 14 Signed, inscribed with medium, dimensions and ‘The Buggy Mirror – Cyprus’, and dated 10/14 on stretcher Oil on canvas, 10 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄2 inches

95 T H E O L D O L I V E T R EE B EH I N D A R EM N A N T O F A W OV EN BA S K ET Signed and dated 14 Signed and inscribed with medium, dimensions and ‘The old olive tree from a deserted village with a remnant of a woven basket’ on stretcher Oil on canvas, 13 3⁄4 x 10 1⁄2 inches

5: 2015-2016

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Myth and Nature

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96 B I RT H O F T H E P H O EN I X I I Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dimensions, and dated ‘Jan: 2015’ on reverse Oil on canvas 23 1⁄4 x 19 3⁄4 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2015, no 113

97 CATA S T RO P H E Signed Signed, inscribed with title and medium, and dated 10/15 on stretcher Oil with oil pastel on canvas 15 3⁄4 x 19 1⁄2 inches

98 PREDEL L A TO B I RTH O F P H O E N I X Signed Signed, inscribed with title, ‘Gvarv’ and ‘Triptych’, and dated ‘24/1/2015/ Jan: 2015’ on reverse Oil on three joined canvases Each measuring 11 3⁄4 x 11 3⁄4 inches, 14 1⁄2 x 38 3⁄4 inches overall in frame Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2015, no 111

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99 TRA NSFIG URATI O N Signed and dated 12/14- 2.1.2015 Signed, inscribed with title and dimensions, and dated ‘Jan/2015’ on reverse Oil on canvas 39 1⁄2 x 79 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2015, no 109

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100 MA RINE ERUP TI O N Signed and dated 15 Oil on canvas 31 x 31 inches

101 FIRE ISL A ND Signed and dated 12/15 Signed twice, inscribed with title, medium, dimensions and ‘Last painting of 2015 total of 24 paintings’, and dated 12/2015 on stretcher Oil on canvas 20 x 47 3⁄4 inches

‘There is a definite point at which “style” becomes “superior” to content as far as the purist painter is involved. But for me the task is to balance content and style so that they are interchangeable. This has happened, to an extent, in the latest work which is a reminiscence of Iceland 66 and 73. “Fire Island” will be the title of the 50 x 120 cm canvas which is dense with incident! It has reached its penultimate stage having arrived at it very quickly. A unity has been achieved by eliminating any detail which became too obvious. I wish to create an opportunity for the viewer’s imagination to create the subject by interpreting the given imagery so that the accidental forms, the freely handled paint has produced, may stand as authentically an experience as was my confrontation with the actual marine eruptions in 66 and 73. The awe-inspiring eruptive force of magna incandescently bursting through the ocean floor or surface rocks creating new land amid a tumult of explosions and roaring release of gasses which condense, cavort and rise vertically as seemingly solid columns many thousands of feet high and subject to the intervention of bolts of lightning searing the ascending funnels of ash as about the base of the eruption water spouts twist and dance. [This] is a visual experience that has imprinted indelibly my visual recall, an archive of cosmic imagery which no subsequent experience of such an event can ever mean more to me. This new painting does not attempt to illustrate the stupendous scale of my field experience in Iceland but concentrates it as the essence of a natural cataclysm.’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, Gvarv, 29 December 2015)

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102 AT L A NTIS II Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2015 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and ‘An attempted Mediterranean mood after a visit to Sardinia with Hilde + Thea July 2015’, and dated 7/8/2015 on reverse Oil on canvas 47 1⁄4 x 79 inches

In autumn 2015, Keith Grant planned the third in the series of ‘Atlantis’ paintings as a response to Paul Valéry’s most famous poem, ‘Le Cimetière marin’ (written in 1920, and published in Charmes in 1922).

Valéry stated that it was the only one of his poems to be inspired by a place, the Saint-Charles cemetery in Sète, a town on the Mediterranean coast of France.

Following his death in 1945, he was buried in the cemetery, which was renamed ‘Le Cimetière marin’ in his honour. Before making a return visit to Sète, in late September, to garner information and inspiration, Keith spent time reading the work of Valéry and preparing the canvas. The two tasks came together in his reflection on Valéry’s poem, ‘La Feuille blanche’ (The Blank Page).

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103 ATL A NTIS III LE CIMETIERE MAR I N Signed, inscribed with title and dated 11/15 Signed, inscribed with title and dated ‘Nov 2015’ on stretcher Oil on canvas 55 1⁄2 x 102 3⁄4 inches

For a larger reproduction of Atlantis III, please see overleaf.

For further quotations from Keith Grant’s journal about this work, continue to pages 84-85.

‘I have assembled the stretcher I have had made for the Atlantis/Mediterranean work (Atlantis III) which I intend to develop after my forthcoming visit to “Le Cimetière marin” at Sète. At present my preparations for the visit have been given a boost by Peter Dale’s translation of Paul Valéry’s Charmes. Especially relevant is “La Feuille blanche” and Dale’s comments on it. The number of symbols close to my own work is surprising and supportive. Valéry’s identification with elemental nature enabled him, despite his intellectual reserve, to invest reality with cosmic and metaphysical concepts … The “sacred” is a reality for P V and so is the unfathomable mystery of being, and being for the sake of being, and the being of the self in response to the experience of nature. I equate the blankness of a writer’s sheet of paper with the terrifying infinity of whiteness before a single mark is put on the surface of the canvas.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 18 September 2015)

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‘Valéry said of his “Cimetière marin” “It must include the abstract and the sensitive, what is observed and what is combined etc”.

A credo at the beginning of my Atlantis III or Le Cimetière marin? Yes, I think so!!’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 23 September 2015)

‘This morning a thought about Valéry’s “La Feuille blanche” – no, not one but many thoughts which seemed vivid and original and teeming in apposite variety. Apposite that is, to stand before a huge “virgin” canvas, white and blemishless, contemplating the first mark it will receive, but not knowing precisely the nature or function of that first mark.

The first touch of charcoal instantaneously creates a measurable distance between the artist and the position he occupies in infinite space. Beyond the mark infinity, limitlessness. Then the next mark, then a long curvilinear sweep, a serpentine line which spans the 2.60 m width of the canvas splitting and spinning its virgin purity and defining a measurelessly active, geometrical space into which the shattered absolute of white might spontaneously and intuitively progress the whiteness … the subject of Le Cimetière marin will, I am sure, enable me to conceive of it in a fragmented space, like a galaxy free-wheeling in the immensity of the universe, the perimeter of which will be the “event horizon” of the canvas; its extent and its edges! …

Attempting to achieve a relationship with Valéry’s poem is perhaps arrogant and vain but it is only because I know that the stanzas of the poem open themselves, at the invitation of the poet, to the interpretation the reader brings to it. Mighty symbols are behind Valéry’s work – the Sun, the Sea, Death, transience, the darkness of the earth and above all of creative life.’ (in his journal, 25 September 2015)

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‘I have spent most of today immersed in thoughts, questions and insightful guessing regarding P V’s “Le Cimetière marin” and other poems and prose writings that I know. A prolonged visit to the graveyard by the sea served to emphasize the gulf between the banal reality of the kitsch-laden tomb – and the monumental and self-revelatory work of the elemental imagination of P V. But a prolonged survey of the site revealed the foundation architectural and solemn upon which the mind of the poet was centred. The light of the sun was tempered by thin cloud and the soaring heat of the poem was lessened by the season but the mood was all the more intense. An even light was uncanny and the ranks of the tombs threw no imperceptible shadows.’ (in his journal, Sète, 30 September 2015; amended Gvarv, 3 October 2015)

‘I began drawing on the canvas the daunting nature of which caused me to recall my established symbols – but I’m sure nothing of today’s work will remain. The important point is I have begun. I may in fact discard any topographical or architectural reference to the cemetery and allow a work to appear on the strength of how much is eradicated during the process … What a task I have set myself!! To visualize the immensity of P V’s themes, their mystic relevance and the mystery of the natural world and the thrilling saga of the cosmos before which human life stands in awe.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 5 October 2015)

‘The work continues but in a probing kind of way … I have to approach obliquely every aspect of Valéry’s work, and the clearer his imagery is in words the greater the temptation to descend into illustration … I am hoping that the visual ideas driving the work will become the foundation for permanent qualities of space, light, heat, images of the earth, insects, birds, trees, skeletal remains and sensual references to the living and dead. Transience is paramount once the self is all important too but finally the work is about life and kinetic energy. The sea and the cosmos is constantly evoked and the scintillating, exploding waves scattering metamorphosed foam on the dark rocks and sea as diamonds …

The painting will be slow to reveal its relevance to Valery’s poem and the painting of it is a seizing of successive ideas which have their source in Valéry’s stanzas.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 6 October 2015)

‘A sign of progress is when the artist is surprised by his own work, at least this artist! I am aiming for my Cimetière to be a theatre of life with the effect of a tragedy in the theatre from which one goes knowing life is awaiting beyond the theatrical experience.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 21 October 2015)

‘It is my interpretation of the essence of Valéry’s “Cimitière” which is the driving force of the work now, dismantling topography and placing the fractured, figurative elements in contexts of relation, scale, colour and above all mood born from spontaneously applied impastoes of paint which suddenly express entities my premeditated painting cannot produce.

I am in thrall to the immensity of this Mediterranean theme and question my arrogance in having contemplated Valéry’s poem as a theme I am capable of carrying to a final resolution.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 23 October 2015)

‘The composition is constricting, that is to say the imagery has yet to break from the kaleidoscope imagery of the poem. I find it impossible to fix on Valéry’s specific symbolism as being essential to my design of the canvas but vague images echo in my mind such as –: “sheer temple of Minerva” or a “diadem” or the bursting spume over rocks. Yet when I attempt to include equivalents for these things I cannot draw on the concept of reality as Valéry does and I spin into a free-fall of invented forms … I am delighted with today’s work on [my mask of “Minerva”] – but as I try to incorporate it into the main fabric of the composition it resists such integration by virtue of its realistic handling. It was painted directly from a Venetian carnival mask of a young woman but is so out of sync with the rest of the work that I don’t know whether the major part of the canvas must change towards the technique or vice-versa …

The main emphasis of colour in the cemetery itself is from marble, bronze, cast iron and rusting plate steel. There is a mass of tangled wire, a thin web of haphazardly embroidered shapes which appear in skeletal form, the reinforcing wire of ancient wreaths, shattered roses and slabs of marble. For me this doesn’t in the least comment on death but on the tawdry masonry of the tombs themselves and the appalling kitsch of the funerary furniture … I am inclined to claim that whatever the “aesthetic” outcome of this work it cannot be lower than the manifest taste which pervades every corner of the citadel of the dead.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 26 October 2015)

‘The work becomes paradoxically more and more surreal and intuitive! What might be lighthearted decoration becomes by association with the elements of this design and the mood I am trying to achieve, deeply serious.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 1 November 2015)

‘Yesterday (12th) I brought Atlantis III near to resolution. All the elements of the composition are in place. I have introduced four cloud-images which carry the sense of “animated design in stillness” …

I do not think my work could ever be mentally processed by intelligence and the search for absolute purity of creative expressiveness as some of the great French and some other European poets have demonstrated. But the gift of inspiration is none-the-less worked through by my process of spontaneity and intuition. I do not wish to analyse how this comes about but it is rooted in my experience of the visual world, my curiosity and wonder re creation and an ability to bring the mystery of it into my work through symbolic imagery.’ (in his journal, 13 November 2015)

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Portrait and Homage

104 PORTRAIT OF SIR GEOFFREY HILL – OXFORD PROFESSOR OF POETRY 2010-2015 Signed and dated ‘April 2015’ Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated ‘April 2015’ on stretcher Oil on canvas 47 x 43 inches

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This portrait is the result of the meeting of two great artistic talents. As Artist-in-residence to Keble College, Oxford, and Oxford Professor of Poetry, Keith Grant and Sir Geoffrey Hill engaged in a series of seminars on creativity since 2012, and have become friends.

Sir Geoffrey then insisted that Keith paint his portrait.

Though best known for his landscape paintings, Keith has produced a number of significant portraits, including those of the Nobel prizewinning chemist, Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson (1988), and Prince Andrew (1994). He has also honoured creative figures either by dedicating works to them or responding to their inspiration in homages.

The two Hommages à Messiaen exemplify this approach, for in them Keith has developed a visual parallel to works by the great French composer and ornithologist, Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992). The first refers to Catalogue d’Oiseaux (1956-58), a major cycle of 13 movements in seven books, for piano solo, which recreates the songs of 77 distinct birds. The second refers to Le Merle noir (1952), a popular piece for flute and piano, based entirely on the song of the blackbird.

105 H OMMAGE A ME S S I A E N ‘CATA LOG UE D’OI S E AUX ’ Signed, inscribed with title and dated 6/2015 Signed, inscribed with title, medium, dimensions and ‘(15 Small Birds)’, and dated ‘June 2015’ on stretcher Oil on canvas 39 1⁄2 x 47 1⁄4 inches

106 H OMMAGE A ME S S I A E N I I ‘LE MERL E NOIR’ Signed, inscribed with title and dated 12/2015 Signed, inscribed with title, medium, dimensions, ‘Le Merle noir in a Northern Forest’ and ‘The Blackbird, the Robin and the Yellow Wagtail’, and dated 12/2015 and 1/16 on stretcher Oil on canvas 39 1⁄2 x 78 3⁄4 inches

‘I have attempted with the image of the Blackbird to arrive at all the pertness and alertness which Messiaen’s music conveys.

I have also tried to suggest the surprise that the sudden appearance of birds have on us.’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, Gvarv, 19 January 2016)

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England 107 T H E H O R S E, T H E RO B I N AND RAINBOW Signed and dated 2/15 Signed, inscribed with title and dimensions, and dated 31.1.2015 on reverse Oil on canvas 18 x 21 1⁄2 inches Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2015, no 107

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‘I have begun the long thought about a composition of the River Darent in Shoreham Valley. The painting will be inspired by an actual spot on the river seen from a bridge. I hope, without straying too far from the idea for this work, to move it away from the actual visual experience towards a more inventive and spontaneously wrought imagery. I intend this painting to be English in mood and technique and almost looking over my shoulder I hope the shades of both J S Cotman and Samuel Palmer will guide me to a kind of patriotic neo-romantic expression.’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, 16 August 2015)

108 T H E R I V ER DA R EN T, K EN T Signed Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 8-9/2015 on reverse Oil on canvas over board 25 1⁄2 x 17 inches

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109 NUT H ATCH , ROB I N A N D WR E N I N K E N T Signed and dated 6/8/2015 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 23.6.2015 on reverse Oil on canvas 31 3⁄4 x 47 1⁄2 inches

‘In the Kent painting of “The Robin, the Wren and Nuthatch” I have removed the central green area replacing it in a light ochre/umber and have introduced the idea of a river high up in the composition. The blue area spans the width of the design and creates a new spatial reality. The work hovers between decorative flatness and a sense of depth.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 9 September 2015)

110 CL EA R I N G F RO M T H E W E S T Signed and dated 9/15 Signed and inscribed with medium, dimensions and ‘Outfall to the Sea, Somerset’, and dated ‘Sept: 2015’ on stretcher Oil on canvas 32 x 25 3⁄4 inches

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‘I have been working towards the realisation of a sea-scape from an impression I sketched whilst with Chris [Beetles] near Lynmouth recently. Chris took a photograph on his iPhone but it has served only as a reminder that I gazed to the horizon upon which the coast of South Wales was dimly visible. A boat on the horizon-line has given me the excuse to develop the idea of a burning ship which I explored in a small acrylic some years ago.’

‘The Somerset painting becomes a Cubistic-Surrealistic statement …

Slowly I have cut and sectioned the space. The clouds are formalised above the horizon line and as formal mirror – reflections below it! The most careful adjustment of tone, colour and penetration into a spatial luminosity.

But this work is a test piece and resembles the cover painting of the 2010 catalogue to my exhibition “The Elements of the Earth” [Departure, The Old Jetty, Viðareiði, Faroes]. But the planar implications of the present painting are not bound to a realistic description of the sky, sea and shore installations as was the case during the creation of the cover painting. The new work is perhaps the most geometrical of any previous compositions. All depends now on the harmony, both colour and design.

I strive to create the illusion of a west/east drift of clouds and air.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 10 September 2015)

‘Progress today on the sea-scape. I have removed the visual conceit of the burning boat and I am concentrating on establishing a sense of movement from R to L. The design is developing into a formalized, broad kind of Cubism with the static element being the constructed concrete passage through which a fresh water stream reaches the sea. Gravel banks thrust left and right in the design with a channel of the incoming tide between them. I think I will call this composition “Clearing from the West” but it has yet a long way to go before I can finish it.’

‘In this work I am aiming for the instantaneous stillness at the perception of movement: that split second of awareness that at one and the same instant express both movement and stillness. To struggle with such notions so as to render them visual is one of the most exciting missions life can offer an artist.’

(in his journal, Gvarv, 9 September 2015)

(in his journal, Gvarv, 11 September 2015)

(in his journal, Gvarv, 8 September 2015)

Norway

99 111 TOWAR D S TH E UN K N O WN Signed and dated 1/15 Signed, inscribed with title, dimensions and ‘Diptych’, and dated ‘Jan: 2015’ on reverse Oil on two joined canvases.

Each measuring 11 3⁄4 x 11 3⁄4 inches, 15 1⁄4 x 27 inches overall in frame Exhibited: ‘Chris Beetles Summer Show’, 2015, no 114

112 TO WA R DS A N OT H ER CO U N T RY Signed and dated 5/15 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated ‘April 2015’ on reverse Oil on canvas 24 x 47 inches

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113 T H E I S L A N D U N DER T H E AU RORA Signed and dated 2/16 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 1/16 on stretcher Oil on canvas 36 x 47 3⁄4 inches

114 T H E B U R N I N G S H I P, DAW N Signed and dated 2/16 Signed twice, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 3/16 on stretcher Oil on canvas 15 3⁄4 x 19 3⁄4 inches

115 V ESTERA L EN F RO M TH E COA S TA L MO U N TAI N S Signed and dated 15 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated ‘Aug/Sept 2015’ on reverse Oil on canvas over board 12 x 39 1⁄4 inches

‘The “panorama” landscape has developed unexpectedly into an intriguing work. I have followed, I am sure, the methodology of the early works of the 60s but the forms which have appeared owe everything to the most recent paintings. The composition is animated by forms which I was unable to appreciate when they spontaneously arose in my earlier work …’

(Keith Grant, in his journal, Gvarv, 14 August 2015)

‘It is impossible to recover a past style, one of some 45 years ago. The new landscape is never-the-less related to “Harstad I” if only by my attempts to bridge the gap of years.’ [See No 04 for the related work, Landscape of a Landscape, Harstad.] (in his journal, Gvarv, 15 August 2015)

‘This work … was inspired initially by a photograph taken by one of [my wife] Hilde’s nieces, Jeanette, who enjoys scrambling on the heights! But I soon lost interest in the photograph and the work developed by a few imaginative impulses which however referred to my paintings of the 60s and not only to contemporary experience of the landscape.

The painting is not directly influenced by my “Harstad” paintings of the 60s and early 70s since it lacks the “inorganic” formalism of the earlier work. There is now … a tendency to turn the forms away from geometrical rigidity and accept that my decision to allow the imagery to remain is based on a more naturalistic appreciation of the patterning which determines the resolution of the composition. There is a more romantic assembling of the iconography of rocks, clouds and light which challenges the concept of a formality in which pure abstraction predetermines a descriptive language of the North.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 20 September 2015)

‘I have often thought of the symbolism of a boat on fire. The Northern Sea burials, such as the mythical funeral of Baldur associated with the disappearing sun of the winter in the North … but in my latest small composition (40 x 50 cm) “Burning Ship, Dawn” I have visualised the scene so deeply that I can’t be certain that I’ve ever witnessed such an event in reality. The painting is an incident in the whiteness of a sunrise seen from a beach upon which shallow waves are softly falling. Above the pale almost imperceptible sun glimmers the star of the morning, Venus. The alarm of a fire at sea is enacted against the indifferent deities of sun, star and rising tide.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 3 March 2016, on The Burning Ship, Dawn [114])

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116 T H E FOUR SEA S O N S I N TH E N ORTH Each canvas signed and dated 1/16 Each signed, inscribed ‘Polyptych of the Four Seasons N. Norway’ and with relevant season, and dated 1/2016 on stretcher Oil on four canvases Each measuring 19 3⁄4 x 19 ¾ inches

‘The subject is a return to my 70s/80s handling of “The Four Seasons” theme, an example of which is owned by Leicestershire Education Committee, consisting of four square canvases painted in 73/74. I am excited by the prospect of working in a predictable and disciplined fashion as far as the composition of the painting goes! Within the strict geometry of the mirror reflected headlands – or tips of angular mountain sides – I will be free to develop forms intuitively.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 1 January 2016)

‘Slow deliberate work on the new “Four Seasons”. The problem with this idea is “two-fold” if not “four-fold”! The balance between the integrity of the subject (a single headland under four separate seasonal moods) and the way it is handled in paint, but the relationship between what is abstract and that which is realistic. I am hoping to convey seasonal change by a minimalism which I rarely use … The geometry of the land is contrasted with the softness of clouds in the spring, summer and autumn canvases and by a green aurora in the winter composition. I begin to see that the finished polyptych will convey a sense of peace, stillness and an invitation to meditation by those who will spend some moments before the work.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 7 January 2016)

103 ‘The simple composition of each canvas needs the most careful attention. I would wish all the surfaces to be painted with dual intention: (1) To be painted beyond the meaning of the four works – so that there are autonomous areas, which freely enunciate the quality of paint as a material in its own right and (2) That the subject is presented with a jewel-like clarity leaving no doubt as to the character of the seasons themselves. There is also an element in the design which stresses the transience of nature with one season passing into another. The “transitions” will be the four frames waiting at the gallery to receive the images.

The four canvases might be described as: (1) Spring. A sky of limpid transparency. A triangular intrusion from the right of the tip of a promontory. Brightly defined and texture but of the utmost simplicity …

(2) Summer. The same right intruding promontary but larger and dressed in “summer” covering with old snow patterns on the highest part of the ridge – reflected in the still fjord …

(3) Autumn. The promontory again but larger than “summer”. Autumnal colouring and texture reminiscent of birch trees … dark shadow below onto mountain-side but fresh snow above …

(4) Winter … Shades of white into pale greys. Dark sky’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 19 January 2016)

‘I can’t imagine that what I have produced is inferior to the reflection series of the 60s and early 70s. There is perhaps a greater depth, in these latest works, to the idea of a linked series of motifs, the intensity of the imagery, the colour and the geometry of the overall design.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 21 January 2016)

117 T RIPTYCH OF TH E WI N TE R R I V E R Each canvas signed, inscribed ‘I’, ‘II’ or ‘III’ and dated 2/16 Each signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 2/2016 Oil on three joined canvases Each measuring 15 3⁄4 x 15 3⁄4 inches, 52 1⁄4 x 17 1⁄4 inches overall in frame

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‘I am envisaging a small triptych of “The Dark River in Winter” which derives from that cold drawing session in the forest which I undertook for the small film unit sent here by David Game …

I have often thought of a “dark river” painting, not overtly because of its mythical or philosophical connotations but because of the excitement created by using the “technical” possibilities of paint to express the subject.

The concept of a black ribbon threading its way through a winter landscape; the river in thunderous spate in counterchange to the ice and snow heavily mantling the scene I find a thrilling opportunity for expressiveness through paint!’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 21 February 2016)

‘The small triptych has prompted a relatively innovative discovery, that of contrasting passages of heavy, “expressionist” impasto with passages of orchestrated, careful and simple painting.

The subject is the dark winter Bø River and it has become charged with life as a result of using the expressionist means of very thick paint to simulate the rushing, leaping and cavorting waters.

It is said that a work becomes significant when the unexpected surprises the artist. I feel this has happened during working on the triptych. It is as if a door has been opened for entry into a new excitingly experimental phase of my work.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 25 February 2016)

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118 TH E WINT ER F O R E S T Signed and dated 1/16 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 1/16 on stretcher Oil on canvas 36 x 47 3â „4 inches

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119 TH E 2 0 1 5 I S OL ATE B I RC H Signed and dated 10/15 Signed, and inscribed with title and dimensions on stretcher Oil on canvas 47 1⁄4 x 39 1⁄2 inches

‘The new “birch” painting 120 x 100 cm has developed from “out of itself”, so to speak, unlike previous paintings of the subject. I intend a slender stem of the young tree to divide a vertical canvas but that is as far as my a priori reasoning will go. The light trunk with its characteristic patterning is set against an indeterminate background suggestive of vegetation and hidden rock surfaces.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 17 September 2015)

120 TH E ENT RA NC E TO A S I B Y L’ S C AV E Signed Signed, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 12/2015 on reverse Oil on canvas over board 15 x 14 inches

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121 ENTRA NCE TO TH E E N C H A N TE D FOREST Signed and dated 3/16 Signed twice, inscribed with title, medium and dimensions, and dated 3/16 on reverse Oil on board 23 x 15 1⁄4 inches

‘Inspired by the strictly relative success of “The Winter Forest” and “The Triptych of the River” I have devised another composition from one of the sketches made during the filming session some time ago now. The particular forest is a small area of rich vegetation, rocks, rivers and trees. But on entering it its scale vanishes and one is tracing a path into a primeval and mythical past even though to continue for half a kilometre brings us into the open again. Nothing could illustrate more clearly that the landscape is within us more than we are in the landscape.

The small canvas … is an invitation to enter an area of limitless immensity. Beyond this forest there is only the darkness from which the innately felt unresolvable mystery of our being was born. High in the design is the image of a white bird of no known species but is a symbol of the spirit of the forest and its snowy track over which it protectively hovers. The work is just a little more than a sketch, the simple imagery, roughly put down but compelling me not to “overwork” the canvas … at the moment its spontaneity and expressiveness exist without me. All but the most cautious and simplest intervention would ruin its mood – I will proceed very carefully.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 29 February 2016)

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122 DEMOL ITION OF TH E TRO JA N H OR S E : LO D I N G EN , N O RWAY Signed and dated 15 Signed, inscribed with title, medium and ‘(This painting represents my attempt to unite Classical themes with those of Norway. in this case the demolition of German fortifications in the North)’, and dated ‘4 Sept: 2015’ on reverse Oil on canvas over board 17 3⁄4 x 36 inches

‘I have practically completed a new work … derived from my visiting the Nazi blockhouses … in the North (Lødingen). But the composition concentrates on the image of a disintegrating colossal horse which is part of the remnants of the fortifications.

The symbolism is of the past of Troy but has harrowing contemporary connotations.’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 3 September 2015)

‘There is a compelling force which has arrived despite the strange subject. But a work of art does not necessarily conform to a logical philosophical birth. Rather aberration succeeds where a sense of reality fails. The Trojan Horse is demolished at the site of a German “bunker” … The warriors have long departed the ruins of their world war pretensions …’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 22 September 2015)

123 DEMOL IT ION OF TH E TROJA N H OR S E Signed and dated 12/15 Signed, inscribed with title, dimensions and ‘(Nr Lodingen, Norway with remnants of Nazi Bunkers)’, and dated 12/15 and ‘completed 10/12/15’ on stretcher Oil on canvas 39 1⁄2 x 79 inches

‘The present canvas is large and the design bold and simple. This means that the paint texture has to contain much of the interest and the light distribution over the forms though – not logically from a perceived source – must be so organised that nothing illogical in relationship to the subject matter and my method of representing it can be determined. The work itself is near abstract but the surfaces must play a specific role in the spatial design. The horse is not the wooden Horse of Troy but a bronze variant. I love the patina and how it captures light “ambiently” and my struggle is to arrive somewhere near to an intimation of this reality … I am seeking a classical authority for the canvas but by an emotionally expressive process, a contradiction that must be resolved!’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 4 December 2015)

‘The image of the horse, dismembered save for its head which regards the viewer with a more than accusative stare, is, apart from the obvious relation to Greek myth, a condemnation of our treatment to animals. We use them and dispense with them, consume them, enslave them, torture them and arrogantly assume our superiority over them – yet each of them, from the first manifestation of life to the blue whale, in their innocent acceptance of their existence challenge those of us who assert the inviolability of life …’ (in his journal, Gvarv, 10 December 2015)

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