Ann Isik Artist & Writer
Gallery II
"The pond is overhung by large trees and on a windy day the reflections of the trees in the water become an ever-changing slideshow ..."
This edition (100) of digital fine art prints on silk, because they are modest in size (7x5 inches) I'm offering at only $75 or just under £50 each. They can be purchased securely from my Etsy Shop.
For more details, or to buy one or more, or the whole set, visit my Etsy shop or contact me via my Guestbook, or email me at: ann.isik@annisikarts.com
My grateful thanks to Rob Stevens, for letting me use his beautiful, haunting music 'Celestial Celebrations' to accompany my slideshow
Pagoda, a story & a Mystery ...
The pagoda, in French pavillon chinois, which inspired these artworks, is situated in the French town of L’Isle-Adam. It's situated 20 miles or so from the centre of Paris, in the Val d’Oise department of the Ile de France.
I've taken many a walk in the forest which surrounds this lovely town. The walks inspired me to produce the book of images and history of the town that's excerpted on my Welcome page.
As history goes, the Bergerets, a family of Receivers General of finances to the king, from 1687 and stretching across four generations, was the most important landowner in L’Isle-Adam after the princes of Conti. (The Conti were a younger branch of the royal Bourbon family and owners of the forest and domain of L’Isle-Adam until come the French Revolution).
The last of the Bergeret line, Pierre-Jacques Bergeret, bought on the 1 st of March 1778, from his cousin, Alexandre-Pierre-Nicolas de Cassan, the domain, in the town, of Châteaupré.
Pierre-Jacques had in the course of his travels in Italy 1773-74 discovered Italy’s anglo-chinese gardens and thus set about transforming Châteaupré similarly. It was between 1780-90 that the Pavillon Chinois was constructed in the park of his chateau, the Chateau de Cassan.
The pagoda is said to have been designed by the French painter Fragonard, who had accompanied Pierre-Jacques on his travels into Italy. It is built on an octagonal plan and its double, pagoda-style roof is supported by eight wooden pillars.
The structure eventually fell into ruin and has been restored twice, once in 1975 and again in 2008, the latter under the direction of Pierre Andre Lablaude, Chief Architect of France’s historic monuments.
The pond that stands in front of the pagoda is overhung by large trees and on a windy day the reflections of the trees in the water become an ever-changing slideshow of images. Their largely black and white qualities, their environment, reminded me of the whole tradition of Chinese landscape painting, of the 'zen' economy of haiku poetry.
This is my inspiration for the artworks represented in the slideshow, which are derived from some of the photos I took of the wind-disturbed reflections in the pond.
Except, curiously, for this black and white image!
This is a mixed media digitally-fused frottage/collage/monoprint I made some years earlier to my discovery of the pagoda in L'Isle-Adam.
I was always puzzled about my urge to include in the monoprint, the cross within a circle. It appears twice in fact, once in purple at the top left and again, blurred and attempting to be - pinky-red - on the bottom right.
Despite much reflection and research, I could find no good reason for this symbol to be included.
This picture, of the entrance doors of the pagoda, are decorated and reinforced with pink-red crosses within circles. I was instantly reminded of my monoprint and I decided to include it in the works that have become my series of silk prints.
In the fused black and white work above it has transformed itself into a rather ghostly form (middle left).
Can the ghostly nature of the motif in the print be read as an overlayering of the future onto the present? If so, why? As a signal, to demonstrate that the past and the future are not as fixed in time as we are led to believe?
Or is it 'just coincidence?'
Ann
http://www.val-doise-tourisme.com
http://www.ville-isle-adam.fr
10% of sales will be donated to the charity International Animal Rescue, through my page for the charity on the web site: Just Giving.
International Animal Rescue
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