These paintings represent over twelve months of planning, and roughly the same time again to complete them. It was a logistical nightmare to ship the canvases from UK airports to Palma. We hired easels from a friendly girl who worked in a restaurant in Deia, where there is an artists’ colony. Some of the paintings found themselves on and off the easel in the studio over count- less months before I would sign them off. With the knowledge that Monet’s main dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, once blamed Monet for poor sales because of the lack of ‘finish’ on his paintings, when I started work back home I tried to put more ‘finish’ on the paintings than usual. I was hoping to paint the works that Durand-Ruel would have loved to see, if indeed Monet had been in Majorca in 1884! None of these works is a copy of an existing Monet, although the high and low tide is his idea, not mine. Otherwise the choice of subject and composition ismy idea of what hewould have done if he had been standing inmy shoes. To that extent, it was a very liberating experience artistically. I feel very much at home with Monet’s style of painting so, whilst it was hard work, it was incredibly enjoyable. I wouldn’t have undertaken the project otherwise. I cannot claim a favourite from amongst this body of work. The idea is that the pieces work as a collection, each complementing the others. This was Monet’s idea too.
2016
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