It
was a nice thing to receive a special, personal invitation. It was
even nicer to see that the special occasion was the opening night
of an art exhibition in Malaga by Terry Durham who lives in Alora.
“Are you nervous?” I asked him on the train as we sped
through the lovely Andalucian countryside towards the coast.
You don’t see Terry smile very often. That’s not to say
he doesn’t have a sense of humour. It’s just that you
don’t see Terry smile very often. This time he did.
“It’s a funny thing, you know. I’ve had so many
exhibitions all over the world you would think I wouldn’t get
nervous, but every single time I do.”
I didn’t say anything immediately and instead, as I gazed through
the window at the golden green citrus orchards in the valley, the
neat lines of olive trees on the slopes of faraway hills and the strikingly
clear detail of the Mijas mountain range beyond, I waited.
“It’s more than nervousness this time,” he added,
the smile tucked away now below his neat, blond moustache, his penetrating
eyes deadly serious. Or was there yet a gleam of humour there?
“I’ve been working really hard on these paintings. I got
a bit worried at one point that I wouldn’t finish in time, they
have just taken on a life of their own.”
I remember very clearly when I first met and interviewed Terry about
two years ago (see feature
and follow up) that
he told me that when his paintings start talking to him he knows it
is working.
“When I hung these paintings up on the walls of the restaurant
last night ready for the exhibition it felt right. No one has seen
these paintings before. I know that I have created something good.
Now I have to see what other people say. I am nervous, yes, this is
very important to me.”
I eased my way several hours later through the pressing crowd towards
Terry to shake his hand. The praise had never stopped coming. It was
a smiling day for Terry. As I got nearer to him he was grabbed and
hugged to pieces by an admiring female fan.
“I am so pleased for you,” I said, having just heard that
he had sold the first painting of the evening.
He just smiled.
In Terry’s own words:
My paintings speak of Africa, they speak of ancient myths, they
speak from the Americas, they speak of deserts and half moons, and
of yesterday’s times. My paintings speak of poetry and drawings
in the sand, they speak of silences and the winds. They speak of
suns and labyrinths, of birds and mythical creatures. They speak
of surfaces worn by times, and of the Shamans drum. My paintings
speak of me.
Since his first exhibition in London in 1963 artist
Terry Durham has shown his work throughout the UK and Europe, Berlin,
Portugal, France and Italy; and he has lived and exhibited in Brasil.
He now lives in Alora.
Mis cuadros hablan de Africa, hablan de mitos antiguos,
hablan desde las Amercias, hablan de desiertos y medias lunas, y
de momentos de ayer, mis cuadros hablan de poesia, y de dibujos
en la arena, hablan de silencios y de los vientos, hablan de soles
y laberintos, de pâjaros y criaturas miticas, hablan de superficies
usadas por el tiempo y del tambor de Shamân. Mis cuadros hablan
de mi.
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