Romer Kitching at La Capelleta, Céret

with Ellen Turner Hall

In ‘Les Saisons à Céret’, Romer Kitching paints the many faces of this cultural capital in the heart of Vallespir. From the brooding monumental Canigou to a fragile passing cloud, the canvases vary in size, mood and treatment.

Where study and completed version are hung side by side, we can note a change toward more light and brighter colour. While the study for the family staircase is rendered in somber shades of brown, the finished painting in grey is suffused with light from an open window. In the artist’s evocation of the plane trees of Céret the leafy golden canopy, only suggested in the preliminary sketch, dominates more than half the canvas in the final version. (see poster above).

Spanning the four seasons, Kitching’s work depicts a dappled summer arbour, autumnal yellow vines skirting a balcony, the snowy crest of Canigou and an almond tree in flower. The paintings suggest a reverence for the everyday: the family shoes lined up at the top of a staircase, a couple sitting in a café, a musician embracing his guitar. Kitching directs our attention to what is unique in each object or person.

The exhibition includes three paintings of gardens, the subject of so many works on the walls of the town’s museum of modern art. This green oasis in the town centre was the shortcut used by artists such as Picasso and Braque on their way to the convent on the hill owned by their friend and benefactor Frank Burty Haviland. Thus Romer Kitching joins the long line of painters inspired by Céret .

When I asked the Engish-born Kitching why he chose Céret as his home he answered, “Art has a value here.” And so it does in the hands of this young artist.

Don’t miss Kitching’s love letter to Céret. The exhibition is open every day from 9h30 to 12h30 and 15h00 to 19h00 until 8 October.