Salon Des Refusé 2018 | Leigh Gallery Represented – An Open Invitation
by Doina Moss
Leigh Gallery Represented – an open invitation
This year we have Doina Moss, Cristina Schek and Leigh Warnick representing Leigh Gallery at the Salon. To prove that expression through art is contagious, Cristina and Leigh will be showing their artworks publicly for the first time.
First Thursday Late Opening for Salon des Refusés 2018 with live DJs. First chance to see the art and meet 100+ participating artists.
10% discount on all art purchases made on this night.
Thursday 7 June 2018 at 6pm - 9pm
***In the tradition of the 19th century Parisian Salon des Refusés, Happenstance Art & Framing Gallery presents the 7th Salon des Refusés: Exhibition of Artworks Refused from the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Our annual extravaganza of artworks missed, unappreciated, misunderstood or sacrificed at the last minute by the Royal Academy Selection Commitee will this year feature over 100 UK and international creators across a range of art forms. This is a unique chance to appreciate non-establishment and democratic art.***
In the style of the original Salon Des Refusés initiated by the frustrated Impressionist artists, all rejected by the established Académie des Beaux-Arts, set up a tent opposite the annual salon. This eventually attracted the public and the collectors.
Rejected by the jury of the 1863 Salon, Manet exhibited ‘Le déjeuner sur l’herbe’ under the title ‘Le Bain’ at the Salon des Refusés (initiated the same year by Napoléon III) where it became the principal attraction, generating both laughter and scandal.
This model was always in my mind and as soon as I could create a career gap in my architectural pursuits, I launched my painting career with a similar themed painting: ‘A Picnic in Richmond’. This was sold at the preview of the Salon des Refusés in 2017, together with ‘A Sunrise at Hampton Court’.
Encouraged by this sold-out achievement, I continued exhibiting and this year I am showing two new paintings.
Our Lady of the Rocks, Doina Moss, oil on canvas: 40x30cm
The subject of the Our Lady of the Rocks is the most Baroque building in Montenegro, the design inspired from a painting found floating in the sea. The architecture and the paintings inside were the result of direct studying of the Old Masters of Florence, Rome and Venice since the 15th century, under the patronage of a very inspired and open minded Archbishop of Bar who encouraged a local painter to advance his knowledge and skill through direct studying of the Old Masters. The subject in itself it’s a masterclass, a composition with a church and master’s palace combined, the actual setting of the manmade island, located such as to be sheltered by the mountains but flooded by sun light like a stage, to be admired from all the surrounding land. It keeps mesmerising from all angles, it is a shrine to the absolute beauty and harmony, a perfect balance between architecture and nature, full of mystic and religion. The Lady of the Rocks is sitting serendipitously calmly, very compact and content on a tiny island, usually surrounded by the mirror effect of calm sea water, or the mist raising, adding to the floating, subliminal effect. This is what Doina expected to capture but instead, the weather changed and produced battering waves, splashing forcefully the edges of the island, the waves tumultuously intersecting while a snow storm flashed in from the North mountain, in vortexes sweeping the sea in a dazzling glittering suspended powder, the light refracting through the droplets. The contrast between the clear sky and the sun light shimmering through the snowy dust added to the majesty of the unperturbed building composition sitting calmly, the same way as it did for centuries. The wind was so powerful, the paints were flying from the canvas and the artist’s apron had no purpose in defending. The different shades of blue and turquoise where amplified by the sun light coming from behind the mountain, adding depth and immersion.
The full journey started from a painting, found floating on the sea, leading to the construction of a building, back into the current painting, extracting the essence permeating through the pursuit of all the authors, this is a collective juxtaposition of skills, captured as a moment in time amplified by the power of nature.
The frame was specifically chosen from an antique market, as a genuine Baroque frame, to emphasise the authenticity of the subject, while contrasting with the freshness of the modern painting techniques.
Rejuvenation, Doina Moss, oil on canvas, 60x50cm
Walking between Masters and Freeze art fair, I discovered that the water in the Baroque fountains in Regents Park had a luminescent green dye added. This created a Surreal effect. With the background of an autumnal canvas and spectacular sun set, I studied the scene through sketches, photographs, analysed the optimum time for setting the “frame” and the following Sunday after the show, I brought my easel to the park. The sky was constantly changing, the clouds moving fast while the sun set changed the mood fast. The water was shimmering through multiple droplets but emanated a sense of continuum, calm and self- reliance in contrast with the fast-moving sky. The sky and the fountain were operating at different speeds through a dialogue, imbuing the air with some energy, a sense of continuum and an aura of rejuvenating inner calm. A fountain of inspiration, always flowing!
Blue Rose, 2017
‘Blue Rose’ was made the day she built a big kaleidoscope to photograph through. Mainly intended for portraits, the kaleidoscope was first tested on the beautiful English roses in her garden, which were later transformed into these supernatural versions of David Lynch’s #TwinPeaks Blue Roses.
Gordon Cole of the FBI (played by David Lynch himself) uses the blue rose as a secret FBI symbol to represent that a case is unexplained and under particularly unusual circumstances. These cases are shrouded in mystery with elements of the supernatural. In reality blue roses are modified to be blue, they do not exist in nature. This is why they have come to represent a symbol of mystery, not just in the world of Twin Peaks, but in popular culture in general.
Fern Boy, 2017
Meet The Green Multiplier, aka Fern Boy. An environmental study. The Fern Boy is a vegetation deity, a sort of forest-god, an emblem of the birth-death-rebirth cycle of the natural year. He speaks to us profoundly in our time of ecological crisis. He is nowhere, yet everywhere.
