Artist Kevin Murray has
lived, loved and painted the Roman
scene
for many decades. Although an
Irish artist of Australian-British education
he is fully
inserted into the solar culture of classical Rome, Byzantine Ravenna and
the Tuscan Renaissance.
The old Italian stereotype
applied to many English of the Grand Tour “Inglese italianato,
diavolo incarnato “ does not apply to him, although
the years in Rome have given him a love for the Mediterranean lifestyle including
good food, wine of the Castelli and la dolce
vita .
All of these aspects
are visible in the still live paintings on view at the artist’s annual open house
at Studio Minerva on June 22nd .
Murray’s many friends
and followers will
be able to find evocations of the
glory days of the Roman trattoria of the 1960s and 70s as well as terrace views and monuments of his beloved Trastevere and the Roman campagna.
In the 1960s-80s Kevin
Murray divided his time between teaching and painting. Inspiration for many of the still lifes in the exhibit came from weekend jaunts to the Castelli Romani or the villages in Etruscan
Tuscia on his trusty Vespa.
The
rustic white jugs holding flowers were purchased from rigattieri in Umbria and Tuscany before these areas became fashionable.
Murray’s paintings reflect the laid back lifestyle
in central Italy during those years .
He shares his trattoria
lunches with us : the table set with a carafe of house
wine, a
steak or fish and salad .
Objects
collected during the
artist’s Roman years encapsulate precious
memories : an antique wooden candlestick, a Deruta plate, a
handwoven arazzo tapestry.
exhibit of still life paintings by Kevin Murray
June 22, 2018
Studio Minerva, Via Pietro Micca , 6, Rome
See also "The Roman Jewels of Kevin Murray" on this blog
