One of the most original and distinctive artists currently working in the Isle of Man opens his long-awaited new exhibition this weekend.

Bruno Cavellec will unveil his latest collection of creations under the name ’Dare The Moon’ at the Isle Gallery this weekend.

The world renown painter, designer and graphic artist has taken inspiration from a quote by one of his favourite poets, T.S Eliot - ’The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time’- and has looked to his original passions and inspirations that drove him to paint many years ago to form the basis of this new collection of work.

Bruno, originally from the the Breton town of Quimper, and now settled in Peel, said that he was greatly inspired by the romanticism movement on the late 18th century, and by his love of writers such as the Bronte sisters and the painter Caspar David Friedrich, and that he wanted to revisit his initial inspirations again.

’This is about the man and the artist that I am now, at nearly 60, painting how I felt when I was 20,’ said Bruno.

’It is why the quote from T.S Eliott is very real to me. It is going back to the beginning and discovering Friedrich and Bronte again. Wuthering Heights was one of my favourite novels when I was a teenager.

’Finding Caspar was like finding a kindred spirit. I discovered him when I was 22/23, and his focus was painting people in vast landscapes.

’I remember thinking I wish I had met this guy. I have never felt so close to an artist, then or now.

’I have studied other painters since, but now I have come back to that and I am re-discovering how brilliant and how close to my personality he was.’

The new collection of work features a stark collection of brooding and intense landscapes, featuring darkening skies or blazing sunsets and small and almost insignificant figures.

’There is a big difference between copying a scene and producing something that can really reveal your emotions. You can almost make them like a self-portrait, especially when you start to put people in it,’ he said.

’It feels like you are almost painting and talking about yourself.

’Hopefully, through the standing stones, or the time of the day, or the figures, people will connect emotionally with them pictures. The moon is also a very present feature, hence the title of the exhibition.

Bruno said that the figures are left deliberately vague and unrecognisable, as he wants the landscapes to convey the emotions of his paintings rather than the human reaction.

’There are no faces featured, because they are not important. As soon as you start to put the eyes and mouth, you identify with them.

’I like the sense of mystery, and it shows someone in a vast landscape, like a tiny silhouette, which gives the scale of how tiny and how fragile we are in this big world.

’These trees have been there for hundreds of years. These mountains for thousands. The people are just passing through. We are transient. I love that.’

The sense of the ancient and a nostalgia for a landscape largely unmarked by the industrial revolution features heavily in Bruno’s paintings, and he said that he feels a deep connection with painters, writers and poets from those times

’I am drawn to ancient times. I am not that comfortable in this world, or this century,’ he said.

’The reason I paint people with long coats is more to do with the romantic era, around 1780 to 1840. Spiritually and emotionally I like to think that I am there.

’I would have loved to be part of that movement, and to have the chance to discuss art and literature and music with the artists, writers and musicians of the time, who have the same ideas and struggle.

’They were already struggling because of the increase of industry and the world was already changing.

’Some people tried to hold on to those times which was before the industry, before the factories and before trains changed everything about how people lived and thought about nature.

’The world, and the people changed at this time and from then could never go back to how it was.’

’Dare The Moon’ opens at the Isle Gallery, at Tynwald Mills on Sunday, June 17, from 2pm for a preview, and will be on general display until Sunday, July 29.

by Mike Wade

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