Thaïs, The Opera Sometimes a picture can be a long time in the making. Recently, I was listening to Massenet’s famous Méditation, an interlude, from Thaïs, when I wondered what the actual opera was about. Illustration, for Anatole France's novel Thais Based on a novel by Anatole France...
One day in mid September 2023, a pair of Israeli women came into my gallery. As they were intrigued by the figure in the landscape images, I asked them if they would like to participate in a new picture. “Yes, we’d love to but we are leaving for Florence today!” I urged them to stay another...
Caspar David Friedrich and the Romantics The inspiration for In these Shoes is Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich, the archetypal image of Romanticism. Friedrich's pictures are often used to illustrate Romantic literature and I remember still the cover of the...
Sign of the times Fascisca the 2019 version based on Ingres' La Grande Odalisque When Fascisca was created back in 2005 it never occurred to me that fascism was anything but a thing of the past, at least for most Italians. Ingres' La Grande Odalisque, the inspiration behind Fascisca. The...
NAUTILUS A new entry in the Metamorphosis series. After 6 years of gestation, the Nautilus photo shoot in Amsterdam is the latest addition to my Metamorphosis series portfolio. Sometimes the gestation period for a picture runs from months into years. I met Silvia, a dusky Portuguese...
The shot of The Three Graces was on my list of projects for over six years, but I could never get three friends together at the same time. Kelsey and René at lunch just after we met. Over lunch they decided to pose for Three Graces. Two Canadian Women Two beautiful Canadians, Kelsey and Renè...
Seeking Grace On the old Roman road on the hill leading towards Orvieto from which Turner painted his celebrated painting in 1828, stands a crumbling de-consecrated church that belongs to an old friend of mine Lucio, this is where he and his friends restore old cars and where they keep their...
Location: St Patrick's Well Orvieto and Danae The Entrance to St Patrick's Well, Orvieto The Umbrian city of Orvieto and its environs in Latium and Tuscany have provided me with most of my locations for the Belle. Sometimes I realise the image on location, but occasionally this is physically...
Rusalka, a Slavic folk tale set to music by Dvořák Vulci Gorge - on the way to the location of Rusalka Rusalka was suggested to me by Ania, a professional singer who had herself performed the role in Dvořák’s eponymous opera. A folk tale found in the slavic world akin to...
Bringing together literature and art photography. The location is in a gorge, in Vulci on the Tuscan - Latium border, that I consider my private Eden. Working on the image later I thought the model looked in a state of bliss and the Mansfield story came to mind. I have read two short stories...
Nadia tells her story: "Pleasure is made of simple things. What could perhaps illustrate this best?" The ingredients of a picture: Luxe, Calme et Volupté comes from a line taken from Baudelaire’s poem Invitation du Voyage, but it was a news item about a chocolate confection popular in...
Chat with Patrick
