Gallery at Glen Carlou
www.glencarlou.com

 

Are thrilled to introduce Double Vision: the inaugural display of a collaborative series of landscape paintings between Beezy Bailey and Stuart Dods.

 

My destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of seeing” – Marcel Proust

Stuart Dods initially took up an apprenticeship with Beezy Bailey and this is where their friendship quickly evolved to the point where they now regularly collaborate creatively. In a similar fashion to André Derain and Henri Matisse, Beezy and Stuart set off regularly in the outdoors to paint side by side. They share a passion for the outdoors and painting. Even though Beezy has 38 years of experience under the belt and Stuart only a few years at the age of 25, these two artists share a particular vision to capture the landscape through different perspectives.

For this project, they appropriated the style and methods of the French Impressionists. Historically, artists such as Monet, would often set out into the landscape and paint in the open air to capture the moment. Monet, like many of his peers of the time, eventually visited the South of France, lured by the seductive landscape and powerful light that this landscape offered. He was soon followed by post-Impressionists such as Van Gogh and Gauguin and Cézanne. The South African painters Hugo Naude and Piet van Heerden were of particular inspiration to Beezy and Stuart as they were the local pioneers of Impressionism.

Beezy and Stuart’s works are not laborious paintings of iconic places. Instead, the works celebrate and highlight their uniquely articulated choices of composition, mood, colour use, and mark-making. They endeavour to capture the fleeting beauty of the landscape during specific moments of the day. With weather and atmospheric changes influencing each setting: a sense of passing time is captured. Moreover, the speed and swiftness with which each moment is captured serves as a reminder that our natural world is rapidly changing and struggling under the pressures of human impact and climate change.

Perhaps these paintings are also a reminder, that the ways of seeing – and looking at a landscape will always be navigated through unique perspectives and experiences. The works are paired from its inception: the same landscape painted from two different perspectives – combined to remain together like a pair of eyes. Therefore, the paintings in Double Vision will only be sold in pairs.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes” – Marcel Proust

This citation is from La Prisonnière, the 5th volume of À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). This quotation rather eloquently describes the spirit of this exhibition. It relates to our universal struggle of being isolated during a global pandemic. The yearning for faraway places, called “fernweh” (translating to far-sickness, the opposite of homesickness) being unable to travel and unable to see places in person forces everyone to reflect inward. Proust reminds us that the key to escaping this “prison” is not necessarily held in discovering new places to see, but to see places (the universe) through new eyes, through the eyes of another.

Beezy and Stuart have done just that; they offer a renewed vision of landscapes and provide a glimpse of the beauty that we stand to lose if we do not protect our natural environments.

Double Vision | A Collaboration of Landscape Paintings, Painted in Open Air by Beezy Bailey and Stuart Dods.

Opening ceremony: Sunday 25 April at the Gallery at Glen Carlou. Location: Glen Carlou Vineyards, Simondium Road, Klapmuts.

Beezy Bailey and Stuart Dods will be performing an open-air painting of the view from the Glen Carlou restaurant terrace, whereafter the exhibition will be opened by Frank Kilbourn, Strauss & Co Chairperson.

Reservations are essential for attendance of the opening, RSVP to gallery@glencarlou.co.za

Exhibition dates: 25 April – 30 May 2021.
Gallery Hours: Mon – Sun (10:00 – 17:00)

www.glencarlou.com