Drawings of a Guitar Player

Inigo 1
sanguine
A5 sketchbook
© The Artist.

Inigo 2
sanguine
A5 sketchbook
© The Artist.

Inigo 3
graphite
A5 sketchbook
© The Artist.

Living a Creative Life – The Importance of Significant Others

Yesterday I spent the day with my old friend Inigo ROSE. One of the things I cherish about being an artist is the important friendships that sometimes happen between fellow artists (great rivalries, frail, over-sized egos & petty jealousies as well, it is true). Here in France, someone who has the métier is known as a ‘Conseour’ or ‘Confrére’. Progressing along a common path , albeit with differences & with different discoveries, different aims & different priorities. Good company stimulates creativity.

What we can can also learn is that it is up to us to reach towards multiple definitions of creativity and, in doing so, to rethink worn-out concepts of autonomy, compromise & success. It is not our intention to underestimate, or oversimplify, the exquisite complications of leading creative lives and living affective lives; nor do do we in any way mean to belittle the agonising lonliness of artistic & literary production. All of us involved in this book know the wrenching pain of sitting alone in front of a blank page or a blank canvas. But we also know that the story doesn’t end – or for that matter doesn’t begin – there.

– Whitney Chadwick and Isabelle de Courtivron, Introduction, ‘Significant Others – Creativity & Intimate partnership’ Thames & Hudson, 1996.

Inigo Rose
Lime Fresco Lime Fresco mounted on board
about 1994
about one meter
©

I meet him in Bath, UK about sixteen year ago. In 1995, he invited me down to his house in SW France for a season. We painted lots & lots. We also learnt so much of each other. Seeing him paint frescoes convinced me of:

The importance of learning from an artist with more painting experience than oneself.
Watching an artist paint (ie demonstrations).
Dialoguing with other artists (whom you esteem) about your aims, hopes, beliefs & more concretely, about your upcoming painting projects.
Having the courage to expose oneself to other artist’s opinions & feedback about your own paintings.
Creative thought & vision. Art isn’t just about technique. It’s also about self-expression & can have a playful aspect.

Here’s a picture of him in his atelier. Observe the sand, the spade & the cement mixer!

And here’s his official press-photo, slaking lime putty in California. Again note the spade… and I thought I had a thing about brushes??? 😉

Inigo ROSE, fresco artist

Inigo Rose paints frescoes. Proper frescoes in lime, the same technique as used in the Quattrocento in Italy & South West France. Inigo learnt the techniques in Italy from whom he says is the greatest living master. Note that the are NOT acrylic nor emulsion.

Inigo Rose

Fresco Sketches on the studio wall Inigo Rose
approx 1,5 x 1,5 metres

He’s also plays the guitar & is a well-known yoga teacher. Philosopher, he’s just come back from the Amazon jungle, where he studied the shamans. Free-spirit, he’s an ‘international person’, having lived in many countries (England, west coast of USA, Italy). Convivial personality, he believes in creativity in all spheres of life, including friendship & just having fun.