Page 38 - Studio International - February 1965

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F111 Seascape 1 964
46 X 46 in.
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F1j1 Landscape. 1 964
46 X 46 in.

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F1j1 Landscape. 1964
46 X 46 in.

The Fijian paintings, curiously enough, hardly include
a single nude. They represent a return to the land­
despite a few interiors with figures (usually children).
Equally strange are the group of monochrome paintings
-green or blue. As I studied them it occurred to me that
the whole trip, the escape, the search, was no more than
a desire to return to nature. When I first knew him
Philip Sutton lived in Suffolk and in an article in Studio
of June. 1958, I described him working in the fields,
a calmer Van Gogh, painting what he saw and felt.
Coming to live in Battersea he was cut off from this
kind of direct contact; paintings of views from his
window were surely nostalgic longings for the open air.
The walls of his studio and the interior subjects became
cramping and stimulated the idea of Arcadian flight.
When I asked how he felt after this remarkable
experience he answered, hesitantly, 'I feel as though I've
grown up. I care less what others think of my work. It
used to worry me that I wasn't avant garde enough.
Was I going to become like so many of the artists I
disliked 7 Now I realize it's more important to do what
you have to do, to live on your own side of the barricades.·
As so often happens in tropical climates, with brilliant,
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