VART2026 In the Footsteps of the Impressionists "I got it into my head that only plaster – real plaster – would give marvellous results. But it cracked, cracked too quickly. I had such a search for truth that I wanted to stick real things to my picture, like the leaves of a tree.” Maurice Utrillo, 1914 I started 2014 with a standard and acceptable History of Art course and followed that up with a unit called In the Footsteps of the Impressionists. This was a two-week study tour actually in Paris. I spent hours in the Louvre as well as chasing after Impressionist painters. I spent some time experimenting with pen and wash. Bottom right is the first pen and wash I did. On an afternoon in Montmartre, exhausted, I sank onto a café chair and did my first pen and wash, just the scene in front of me. Utrillo said of his work, “I got it into my head that only plaster – real plaster – would give marvellous results. But it cracked, cracked too quickly. I had such a search for truth that I wanted to stick real things to my picture, like the leaves of a tree.” In 1914 that wouldn’t have been considered extremely avant garde, but in 2014 it's quite old hat. So, for the tour exhibition, I produced another interpretation of Saint Pierre de Montmartre and the Sacred Heart. I tested plaster-of-Paris, sand, leaves, shells, sticks and natural pigments: with PVA glue to stop it all cracking: I decided to simplify my composition and started with lots of small thumbnail drawings: I tried a larger version of the coloured one with oil pastels: Then I took to acrylics I and changed it a bit a bit; the three green circles on the left were cut-outs I used to experiment wit bushes: I asked friends for feedback and one supplied me with a simplification, which I liked. I cropped it down to a small area in the centre: finally picked up my "real" materials and produced a textured version with plaster and dried leaves as Utrillo wanted. I used sand, shells and coffee grounds to vary the textures when I found I couldn't move the plaster into the brush rhythms of the acrylic version: Going through this process taught me a lot about developing an artwork rather than just jumping in. I wonder what Utrillo would have thought of my version. I'm sure he would have been happy about the plaster-of-Paris and real leaves
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