Paul Riley Watercolours, A Retrospective - Prague 2011
This exhibition will demonstrate the versatility of watercolour as a medium. The fluidity and fragility of a flower petal, the movement of dancers, fleeting atmospheric landscapes to topographical paintings from the Himalaya series larger than a meter in size.
The special focus of the show will be a series of paintings inspired by a visit to the Customs house museum at Vyton where he came across the raft men of the Vltava.
Some years ago I went on a trek in the Himalayas with my good friend Pavel Hladic and my two sons Mark and Antony. It proved to be an epic and life changing experience. As a result I produced a series of paintings that attempted to express my feelings. The resultant exhibition was a breakthrough for my development as a painter.
When I was contemplating the exhibition in Prague I felt I needed to express my feelings about the city and its inhabitants. It so happens my wife Tina and I have a little bed sit in Podoli and was whilst I was exploring the little museum at Vyton that I was hit but a ‘creative thunderbolt’ as we painters say.
I discovered that the region where we stay was once the home of a special area of Prague called Podscali. Furthermore it was the stopping off point for one of (to my eyes) the most extraordinary phenomena. The ‘Rafts’….
When I was first made aware of their previous existence I had no idea how long their history was (a) and (b) how long they were and (c) the amazing voyage the pilots undertake to get the rafts from the source of the timber to its destination. We English are surrounded by sea and our history is littered with epic voyages undertaken by brave and often unsung heroes. Yet here in Prague were some genuine unsung heroes that considered it nothing to pilot huge juggernauts of barely in control dangerous logs down a virtually untamed river. For me this was totally inspiring and a challenge. From the very few photographs available I made numerous sketches and diagrams and even built a model at 1:10 to get a feel for the immensity of these crafts. I was fortunate to obtain a small snippet of movie taken in the 60s, which really gave a flavour of the experience the raft crew went though.
Imagine my amazement on discovering that this activity that had happened continuously since the 1300C suddenly ceased and Podskali wiped out when the riverfront and tunnel was built at Vysehrad. The only vestige of this once special activity that I have been able to discover is some rotten post based opposite Vyton at Smichov which is why I wish to commemorate this activity, the rafts and the men with this exhibition.
