Honesty: the best policy?

Once upon a time there was a sort-of-retired-teacher who went down to the centre of Cardiff to look at an exhibition of paintings.

He liked paintings and he had lots of pretentious things to say to the owner of the gallery about the canvases on the walls. When he had seen his fill of the art he decided to go to have lunch in a posh restaurant.

He went to the Hilton and had a very good starter made up of lots of lovely things and then he had a main course which was calves’ livers with Cumberland sausage and crispy bacon with vegetables cut into geometric shapes. He was very naughty and had a glass of red wine as well!

When he had eaten his main course the waiter asked him if he wanted to have a pudding. He knew that the puddings were very attractive, because he had seen them all laid out when he went to get his starter.

He thought and thought and just as he was about to make a decision the hotel fire alarm went off and everyone had to leave the restaurant by the nearest available exit!

He had finished his meal (really) and he was outside on the street. How easy it would have been for him to just walk off and not pay. He even had his bag with him which he had picked up before he left!

What do you think he did? Did he blend in with the passers by or did he go back and pay for the food he had eaten? What do you think?

Well, it was a bloody good thing I did go back, because I had left my mobile phone on the table in the restaurant.

Never let it be said that honesty didn’t have an immediate pay back.

The exhibition was in the Kooywood Gallery in Museum Place and Phil Parry was exhibiting a series of oils on canvas under the title of ‘Horizons.’

Although better known as a portrait painter, these paintings were devoid of people and were all landscapes, most of them seascapes. He had particularly concentrated on the painting of water and clouds. He had chosen a portrait format for the pictures and, as he wrote in the catalogue, “I often use the portrait format to emphasise the sense of perspective and space by moving the horizon line higher of lower.”

The most successful painting, in my opinion, was a portrait format picture of light on the sea: a remarkable evocation of a small breaking wave and the translucence of the water with the light behind it. The far distant horizon is also particularly effective with a glowing sense of light on water. The painting is also remarkable for its price tag: a thousand pounds more that others of its size!

The portrayal of clouds in many of the paintings is very effective, and the interplay with the water provides a very active canvas. The canvas itself is thick weave and plays an important part in the appearance of the paintings. I feel that the texture is quite intrusive and it detracts from the effective portrayal of the subject matter: they have the look of paintings photographed onto the canvas rather than painted!

Most of the paintings were arresting but one example (just be the entrance door) looked rushed and almost sketch like – though the paintings actually designated as sketches looked much more professional. It looked out of place in the context of the other paintings and, in my opinion, should have been held back.

The painting of water is not uniformly successful: one painting where the water was three quarters of the canvas declined from the interesting ripples to an uninteresting and rather blank block of colour. I’m also not sure that Phil makes the most of the line of meeting of water and sky.

Overall the exhibition was refreshing and stimulating and worth another look.

Tomorrow: Reading and the new house. Who knows, perhaps tomorrow will also bring our first Peter Alan viewing? Deo volente!