An Artful Afternoon
Our Village hosts an Exhibition of Art and Crafts.
Joan
4/11/20253 min read
Last weekend saw the eleventh exhibition of the work of artists and artisans in our tiny village hall. We decided to call in and see what it was all about.
We arrived late after our customary afternoon walk, but there was such a lot to see that we wished we had come sooner. From small scale embroidery and simple crafts to artists, potters and sculptors, it would seem that our village and the surrounding area gives inspiration to many artists, just as it did to the famous sculptor Paul Dardé, whom I have talked about in earlier blogs.
I hoped to find a piece of original art to purchase, not only to adorn our walls, but also to show support for local artists. We often meet Pieter when we walk in Gourgas, who tells us of his wife who fills the house with paintings, so we looked her out. We immediately fell for one of her many life drawings. Here she is with her drawing of Nicole, which we chose to buy. It was executed in fusain, a type of charcoal with a reddish tinge.
We admired the work of a local potter , and chose a house-warming gift for some friends of ours whom we were planning to visit.
Another of our friends is crazy about cats. This artist had just the thing for her.
The next stall brought a big surprise. Exhibitor Régis Boyer was full of friendly enthusiasm. He told us that he had recently moved back to his family home in our village, where he now runs a forge. The tools he makes were on display, and he proudly showed us the four stages of making an axe head. He also had a display case of special knives which he makes. His special forge tools such as tongs and hammers were there on display. We hope to visit him one day when the forge is in action.
I recently became interested in sculpture when I discovered the amazing creations of Paul Dardé, about whom I have written in earlier blogs. And so I was delighted to learn that our own local village sculptor was displaying some of his works. His name is Alain Despres. But unlike Paul Dardé who loved to work with the local limestone, he works stone such as serpentine , marble, or basalt from adjacent areas such as the Pyrenées and the Aude. His sculptures are abstract, and often composed of two different colours/types of stone. Here are some examples of his work.
