Velimir Trnski :: ARTTRN

AUTUMN IN PARIS

I am smoking a pipe and drinking coffee while being watched by four daffodils from my tiny garden. They have lifted their heads, as they were refreshed by rain an hour ago. I am listening to OTVORENI radio via satellite, but the French birds from outside are singing more nicely. They began singing this morning around four, as if they knew that summer time was starting overnight.

Some people ask me why after painting nude acts and portraits I was now painting the Paris autumn. I always claimed I was painting my life... hm. I hope that my ‘autumn’ has not begun yet (... or has it... but never mind).

Different moments have passed through my painting life, different situations, ideas, teachers: Ivancic, Hegedusic, Schiele and Klimt, journeys, novels, movies, honourable and less honourable ladies, happiness, sadness, success and drama.

I have turned all of them into food for the soul and painting and this resulted in the cycles: BON VOYAGE, HORSES, SHIPS, NUDES, PORTRAITS, MASKS, SAINTS, CLOWNS, FREE MARKET, MUSIC, ART PHARMACEUTICA, IN WATER, DUBROVNIK.

Just as I painted Bon Voyage twelve years after traveling to school and faculty, so now I discover Paris, after living in it for twenty years.

Cycling across the town, over the past few years I have discovered another city. Paris is not all gray to me any more, and after the rain, its black asphalt is ever darker, while the gray stone and the facades are an ideal base - ja bih rekla 'background' umjesto 'base', vi cete bolje osjetiti koja vise pase - for painting (OUT black and) yellow and red accents.

The street sweepers resemble the feather gatherers, as they collect and form heaps and rows of leaves. Hundreds of meters of flat pavement, becoming hazy in the distance, and hundreds of meters of neat rows of leaves.

You can imagine what a treat it is for the wind, if it happens to whizz by, and it does, every hour or two.

And how am I then not to paint? I don’t notice cars or people, but just enjoy that contrast of gray and yellow, sprayed with droplets of water. Blue or pink skies, the gray and purple roofs, the silver glow of the windows, and the amber necklace of tree tops. You can barely breathe from all the beauty, but the air is clean, as there was rain just a short while ago. Then, the black trunks of the maple trees, and elm and plane trees, and a rich carpet of yellow, red and brown. As Salih Isaac, an art critic, once wrote: ‘LITTLE EYES MUSIC FOR TRNSKI ’.

Up until today I have painted some 16 canvases, and since I know what the Parisian gallery owners are like (more gangsters than gallery owners), I had shown the paintings to buyers outside France, and immediately sold two. Armed with optimism, and with 109 exhibitions under my belt, I undertook yet another attack, fresh and new, on Parisian galleries. Lo and behold, an invitation soon came from Galerie Vendôme. They expressed their desire to work with me; they liked my AUTUMN IN PARIS!

Imagine, the neighbours of my canvases will be the shop windows of Cartier, Boucheron, Van Cleef and Chopard...promising, isn`it ?

JESEN U PARIZU

Pušim lulu uz kavicu, a gledaju me četiri narcisa iz mog malog vrta. Digli su glave, jer ih je osviježila kiša prije sat vremena. Slušam radio OTVORENI preko satelita, ali mi ljepše pjevaju francuske ptičice izvana. Počele su još rano jutros oko četiri, kao da znaju da noćas nastupa ljetno vrijeme.

Pitaju me neki, zašto poslije aktova i portraita sad slikam parišku jesen. Uvijek sam govorio da slikam svoj život...hm. Nadam se da još nije počela moja „jesen“ (..ili jest....ali neka).

Kroz moj slikarski život su prošli razni momenti, situacije, ideje, pa profesori: Ivančić, Hegedušić, Schiele i Klimt, onda putovanja, romani, filmovi, uvažene i manje uvažene dame, veselja, tuge, uspjesi i drame.

Sve sam to pretvorio u duševno slikarsku hranu i nastali su ciklusi : BON VOYAGE, HORSES, SHIPS, NUDES, PORTRAITS, MASKS, SAINTS, CLOWNS, FREE MARKET, MUSIC, ART PHARMACEUTICA, IN WATER, DUBROVNIK .

Kako nakon 12-godišnjeg putovanja u školu i na fakultet slikam Bon Voyage, tako nakon 20-godišnjeg življenja u Parizu slikam tu temu.

Vozeći se biciklom zadnjih godina otkrivam neki drugi grad. Pariz mi više nije samo siv i poslije kiše njegov crni asfalt je još crniji, a sivi kamen i fasade su idealna slikarska podloga za crvenožute akcente.

Čistači ulica kao neki sakupljači perja metu, kupe i formiraju hrpice i redove lišća. Stotine metara ravnopoloženog trotoara koji se gubi na horizontu i stotine metara pravilnih redova lišća.

Možete zamisliti kakvo zadovoljstvo tu ima vjetar ako naiđe, a svrati svakih sat, dva.

I kako da ne slikam. Automobile i ljude ne vidim i samo uživam u tom sivo žutom kontrastu, posutom kapljicama vode. Plavo ili ružičasto nebo, sivoljubičasti krovovi, srebni odsjaj na prozorima i ogrlica jantarnožutih krošnji. Jedva možete disati od ljepote, ali zrak je čist jer je bilo i kiše maloprije. Onda crna debla javora, brijesta i platana, a dolje raskošni tepih žutocrvenosmeđi. Kako jednom o meni napisa naš likovni kritičar Salih Isaac: „TO JE ZA TRNSKOGA MALA OČNA MUZIKA“

Naslikah ja do danas nekih 16 platna i znajući kakvi su pariški galeristi (više gangsteri nego galeristi) pokazao sam slike kupcima izvan Francuske. Prodadoh dvije odmah. Naoružan optimizmom i kako imam 109. izložbi iza sebe, započeo sam po neznam koji novi napad na pariške galerije. Vrlo brzo stiže poziv galerije Vendome kraj trga Vendome. Žele raditi samnom i sviđa im se moja JESEN U PARIZU !

I zamislite susjedi mojih platna će biti izlozi Cartiera, Boucherona, Van Cleefa i Choparda...obečavajuće, zar ne.

Velimir Trnski