Morocco
Gerry visited Morocco several times, inspired by the paintings which Matisse created there in the early 20th century. The wild beauty of this landscape was a perennial source of inspiration: the startling contrasts between the snow-clad peaks of the High Atlas range, the hot reds, pinks and purples of the foothills, and the verdant greens of the oases and palmeries along the river valleys. In the paintings it is almost as if these disparate elements have been collaged together in horizontal bands of colour. The bare, forbidding Anti-Atlas, on the other hand, show their beauty in predominantly steely grey and pink hues.
The Pinks of the Atlas Mountains
Door to the Kasbah
Meknes Green
White Domes
Moroccan Shrine
The Road to the Desert
Blue Atlas
Journey to Marrakech
Atlas Kasbahs
Blue Swathe
Kasbah Cast Shadows
The Ziz Valley
Azure Dome
Berber Village
Moroccan Mud Walls
Desert Domes
Fez Kasbahs
Early Snow, Morocco
Dusty Moroccan Pinks
Draa Valley Yellows
Rain in the Atlas Mountains
The Valley of the Roses
High Atlas Reds
Marrakech Blues
Marrakech Haze
Desert Village Morocco
The Moroccan Series
In this series the intention was to evoke a sense of harmony between man-made structures and the land. The many shades of ochre, pink and red to be found in the rocks are perfectly echoed in the mud-pisé buildings, so that they almost appear to grow organically out of the ground. There are frequent references to mud walls, peppered with holes from the timber formwork used in their construction, and to the fortified towers of the kasbahs, which abound in this region. There are also oblique references to minarets, marabouts (saints’ shrines) with their pointed domes, and linear geometric forms, which relate to Islamic ironwork, inlay and ceramic decoration. A feeling of earthiness and oneness with Nature is created, and a sense of mood in each work through the use of atmospheric colour.
The desert paintings are a response to the beauty and tranquillity of the dunes at Merzouga and Tinfou near the Algerian border, and they convey a sense of the awesome emptiness of the desert and the feeling of being totally alone in a vast sea of dunes. Some dunes reached as high as 800 feet, their colours ranging from cool pinks through pale yellows to rich golden ochres. The difficulty of gauging distances further enhanced the feeling of unreality and mystery, and the normal division between land and sky is blurred.
In the foreground of these paintings there are often marks and tracks in the sand which suggest the passage of humans and animals, and the distinctive black shapes of Berber tents appear as a reminder of man’s precarious existence in such a barren landscape.
A selection of paintings by Gerry Dudgeon is for sale and available to view at kingfisherart.co.uk
Kingfisher Art is an online contemporary art gallery based in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, specialising in art fairs and pop up galleries around the country, as well as online sales.