Village Life

If you're ever in the haute-Provence region near Draguignan be sure to make the drive to Tourtour the village where Ronald Searle lived- it's worth the trip. The visitor's website had been updated with an online version of the exhibition that displayed Ronald's drawings for the village magazine Lou Troumeptoun. See it here

More on 'the village in the sky' Tourtour here

Summer Exhibition of self-portraits

I wish I could make it to haute-Provence for this summer show of Ronald's self-portraits in the village where he lived. The town also unveiled a memorial plaque above the front (back? -I was never sure!) door of his home.  His daughter Kate was there to represent the Searle family.

It looks like the exhibition has self-portraits from across Ronald's whole life-a testament to how long he lived! I've gathered many of them in this section.

Searle exhibition in Tourtour

A small exhibition opened this week in Searle's adopted village Tourtour, haute Var, France.  It focuses on his lithography ouvre featuring 12 prints.

Remembering Ronald Searle pt2

In February 2008 Ronald had agreed to meet me in a couple of months but the Searles' annual visit to Paris for health treatment postponed this to September. I was of course very excited to finally get the opportunity but it also impressed upon me just how frail they may be at this late stage of their lives.

The date in September came around and one Saturday morning (all meetings with Ronald were on Saturdays-he was busy with work during the week) I once again made the not un-pleasurable drive from the Cote d'Azur up to the Var.

I arrived in Tourtour maybe an hour before our scheduled appointment and walked around the village rehearsing what to say to a legend when he opens his front door.  In the event it wasn't Ronald who answered my knock but a French lady who I took to be the Searles' home help.  She led me through to the kitchen in the back.  The walls were modestly adorned with artwork-not too many pieces and not Searles' own.  Just a small collection of historical caricatures by Gillray and Cruickshank.

I stood in the kitchen and waited.  Chez Searle was a warren-like abode, expanded over decades by combining four adjoining properties. Ronald entered the kitchen descending a short flight of steps that dropped from the lounge area at a higher level. He was immaculately dressed, his head of silver hair neatly brushed and sporting his trademark beard, now silver. "Hello Mr Searle" I smiled and as we shook hands I noticed his hands twisted by age, years of drawing and injury sustained as a POW.

We sat together at the kitchen table and started the type of conversation that comes easily between creative types; he knew I was a professional cartoonist and trusted me and indulged my sincere interest in his work and career.  I was surprised that he was interested in my work and was happy to browse my portfolio-he was honest and held little regard for computer created design work!  He much preferred the looser, hand drawn sketchbook work and drawings from life.

Introductions accomplished and aware of the short time frame I steered the conversation to his work-I had prepared questions and had a lot to get through. One hour turned into two and his already rasping voice became hoarse.  As the clock ticked I felt guilty encouraging him to tell more wonderful tales and inevitably he called time saying that his wife Monica was ill upstairs and needed his attention.

I had brought a stack of his books with me that we had examined with my specific questions.  I asked him to sign only one-trying to maintain a professional cartoonist stance and suppress the rabid fan!  (There were instances while we talked where I squealed inside "I'm talking to Ronald Searle!!" but kept it checked knowing I must concentrate on memorising everything he says because I'd have to write it all down later).

As he led me to the front door I told him that I maintain a website dedicated to his artwork and he made a note of the address-I couldn't quite figure out at that point if was online or not.  Being a very private individual and wanting no distraction from his work he was known to be only contactable by fax or written correspondence.  Although he had said he finds dip pen nibs on Ebay.  I would later realize he was entirely connected with the world via the internet.

We waved good bye and I was regretting not being able to get a photo with him-if only to prove to myself that this meeting with a legend had occured.  As I walked away from his house he touchingly said "I'm always here".
I had been living in France two years at that point and left a few months later. I wish that I had met Ronald earlier and been able to visit him more often when I lived 'locally'.  However we continued our old fashioned correspondence by written letter and the day before I left for the UK I received a package from him.  Knowing my interest in animation he had made duplicates of photos of him working on Energetically Yours and a vhs tape of animated spots he made with Ivor Wood. Gold!

The exact details of that first encounter with Ronald Searle can be read here  and here

Part 1 of Remembering Ronald is here

In part 3 I'll write about 'Lunch with the Searles'!

Tourtour

Tourtour, the Provençal village where the Searles lived, is currently hosting an exhibition 'La Dolce Vita a Tourtour'.
A collection of the cartoons Ronald made for the village magazine 'Lou Troumpetoun' depicting the bucolic Tourtour way of life . . .

For 12 years Searle contributed a back-page cartoon to the village magazine-I saw copies of the whole lot in the village tourism office but they only had one issue available for me to take away. 

Last year Galerie Vision in the village had a small exhibition of Searle originals, apparently the only exhibition of his work in the village during his lifetime.

An animation friend Mark Stanleigh was in Tourtour last year and saw the exhibition.  He left a message for Ronald at the gallery and received a typically generous response.

'This past summer I went on a trip to France and visited the small and beautiful village where Ronald Searle lived. Although I inevitably did not run in to him, I met a friend of his who was kind enough to agree to pass on a letter I wrote for Mr. Searle. In the letter I thanked him for inspiring me so much and included a sketch that I did for him. A

 mere few weeks later I received this bittersweet postcard in the mail in which he thanked me for my letter and informed me that while I was visiting, sadly his wife had passed away. I am still in disbelief that he took the time to write me despite such horrible circumstances. I feel very lucky to have heard from him and thought that I would share his note to me. Thank you Mr. Searle and Rest in Peace.'

From Mark's photographs it looks like the drawings on display were those made for Le Monde through the nineties.

Exhibition 2013 at the Galerie Municipal

Remembering Ronald Searle part 1

After Ronald's death animation news site Cartoon Brew asked me to write a tribute but I also wanted to share the story of how I got to meet him and the subsequent visits I was able to make. I hope to give readers an idea of what it was like to meet Ronald and an introduction to the wonderful Provencal village he lived in.  I'll split it up into parts which should be more digestable.

Between 2006-2008 I was working in France, initially in Paris for four months then later in Nice on the Cote d'Azur.  Living in the south I was aware that my drawing hero Ronald Searle resided somewhere nearby in the hills of haute Provence.  I was aware too that he had moved there in the 70s and was a very private person.  The last filmed interviews with him in his fifties revealed an intimidating wit and intelligence yet I still wondered if I could find him in his hilltop retreat. I found out the name of the village where he lives in an old interview in the Guardian and one bright Sunday morning in February 2008 set out west to find Tourtour-the 'village in the clouds'.
Taking the highway west from Nice, past Cannes towards Draguignan a very pleasurable drive took me ever higher and into more remote landscape, leaving the tourist infested coast behind. The winding road rises through Flayosc giving way to spectacular views of Provence and the Luberon-on a clear day Mont St Victoire, famously painted by Cezanne, is visible.

The route eventually brought me to the old stone portal that is the main entrance to Tourtour. Parking in this out of season month was no problem and I set out on foot to explore the village.  Now at this point I had no contact with Searle and as I walked around the village I wondered which house was his and can't deny peeking through the odd window or looking for his name on post boxes!  Of course I didn't see him strolling around the village or sipping pastis at a café terrasse either.

The village is deemed one of the most picturesque in France and I took the opportunity to sketch. I found what I considered the most interesting corner; the old fountain-place in the shadow of an ancient tree and sat in the sun to draw a quick pen sketch with some ink wash.

Breaking for lunch I moved up to the church perched on the highest point in the village.  With the breathtaking 180 degree view of Provence before me I penned a respectful fan letter to Searle explaining that I was a British animation artist working nearby and hugely influenced and inspired by his work.  If there was any chance of meeting I'd be most grateful.  I tore out the drawing of the fountain-place from my sketchbook and put it with the letter in an envelope then went back down into the village to find the post office.  Of course it was closed on a Sunday but I thought the tourist information office may help and fortunately the lady running it was helpful enough to offer to pass my letter to Mr Searle with whom she was acquainted.  I later learnt that everyone in the village knew the Searles.

I left soon after doubting my letter would ever be delivered and who the heck am I anyway thinking I could reach the great Ronald Searle.  But I was glad I had tried and it was a wonderful day out in beautiful surroundings.  I headed back down towards the Mediterranean and home to Nice. . .

A couple of days later I was delighted to receive a letter addressed to me in Searle's characteristic spidery hand writing-a reply! The response was curt but polite- he thanked me for the drawing, which he said he liked very much, and that a meeting would be possible in a couple of months once he and his wife had returned from their annual stay in Paris for medical treatment.

I was over the moon!  The Searles' health issues postponed the rendezvous several months and once the hot summer months had passed Searle seemed receptive to a meeting in September 2008 . . .