|
|
ESEDRA
FOUNTAIN
1987
|
PHOENIX
1982
|
The years of Maturity were also marked by a whole series of Fountain paintings. Finally, the fountains of Rome which he had first sketched with Diana in their travels through Italy forty years ago explode in abundance. What fascinated the artist above all was the play of water through air and light and over stone. The element of water in all its fluid forms has become a painterly challenge, and he renders its movement with absolute mastery.
But the other elements are not forgotten. His Phoenix (1982) is more than just a symbolic picture of death and rebirth - the phoenix which immolates itself in the fire and arises reborn from the ashes. The notebooks reveal the painstaking efforts which Johfra took to render in paint the glowing, undulating movement of fire.
|
|
|
|
|
THE RECONCILIATION OF TITANIA AND OBERON (1994)
(De verzoening tussen Titania en Oberon)
|
Similarly, the rich verdure of vine and vegetation invades almost all of his works from this period. A fine example, aside from the earlier ones of Pan or the Self Portrait as a Faun, is The Reconciliation of Titania and Oberon (1994). This is the apex of a whole series of Elf paintings, which examines the gnomes, fairies, and woodsprites in their own element. The mushrooms, ferns, ivy and rocks are all rendered with loving attention to the marvellous shapes and patterns which emerge from the earth.
|
|
|
|