2nd October 2001

 

Paintings

 

Private views were held on:
Tuesday October 2nd 6.30 – 8.30 pm
Thursday October 4th 6.30 – 8.30 pm
Sunday October 7th 12 noon – 3pm

Viewing by appointment at other times.

For further information contact Jonathan Ross: Phone 07747 807576
or jross@gallery286.com

Exhibitions at Gallery 286

Tony Rothon is a collector of dedicated fragments. Look at the subjects laid out in these paintings. A dead frog with moth wings. (How poignant can you get?) A bird’s skull rests in a landscape, casting reflections and setting off echoes. An ornamental cabbage is dense with texture like a wall, yet full of delicate colour modulations. Something very fragile (yet at the same time tough) like a wishbone of a chicken, is painted on rough canvas laid over a thick block of wood. The presentation stands as a metaphor for the method: what is illusion, what reality? Rothon is interested in things, in people, in the business of painting. He works from direct observation, in front of the motif – see his simple but lyrical Lettuce Row, or the intent Orchard Landscape – or from memory and imagination, as in the differently inventive Walkers by the Pond. Even when he paints a portrait, subtle and complex as it undoubtedly is, we can only be shown selected highlights of the sitter’s personality. There is no completion, yet the paint itself is far from hesitant. It is applied with sensitivity. It is thoughtful. It can be angry or contemplative, it can be allusive or predominantly descriptive, but it is never coarse. Tony Rothon admits to four mentors: Euan Uglow, Patrick George, Jeffery Camp and Craigie Aitchison. Not a bad pantheon, though it could be overpowering. Somehow Rothon has survived. He recalls Patrick George’s injunction: ‘Don’t be a ponderous painter.’ He isn’t. Subtlety keeps breaking through.

Andrew Lambirth
London: September 2001

List of exhibited work
1. Gardens behind Parliament Hill oil on canvas £600
2. Figure with leaves oil on canvas £3,000
3. Lettuce Row oil on canvas £700
4. Head with birds oil on canvas £800
5. Pigeons in Sintra oil on canvas NFS
6. Beach Scene, San Lucar de Barremeda oil on canvas £300
7. Bird Skull in Landscape oil on canvas £800
8. Terrace at Randaval oil on canvas £600
9. Rachel against blue oil on board £1,200
10. Man on brown oil on canvas £800
11. Summer Garden oil on canvas £1,200
12. Two Men oil on canvas £1,500
13. Reims Cathedral oil on canvas £1,000
14. Red Roses in Blue Vase oil on canvas £700
15. Red on Grey oil on canvas £300
16. Pale Woman oil on canvas £800
17. Nude against white oil on canvas £1,200
18. Betty Bardo oil on canvas £1,200
19. American George against white oil on canvas £800
20. Walkers by the pond oil on canvas £500
21. Landscape at Fuenteheridos oil on canvas,
laid on board
£450
22. Hollygale with cats oil on canvas £900
23. Study for The Women’s Bathing Pond I oil on board £900
24. Study for the Women’s Bathing Pond III oil on canvas £1,500
25. Palette & hand mirror oil on canvas £450
26. Ornamental Cabbage oil on canvas £1,200
27. Orchard Landscape oil on canvas £900
28. Dead Frog with Moth Wings oil on canvas £1,200
29. French Girl and cushion oil on canvas NFS
30. Figure on Green Sofa oil on canvas £2,000
31. Wishbone oil on canvas £250
32. Weeping Silver Birch oil on board £200
33. Delphinium, Alium and glass oil on canvas £950
34. Clelia Rinaldi oil on canvas £2,000
35. Black Saucepans oil on canvas £800
36. Mrs. Daniels oil on canvas £2,500