Books: Inspirations Artist and Writer Quentin Blake
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Though it was put together in the days of the German occupation, Carne and Prevert succeeded in making Les Enfants du Paradis a vivid evocation of 19th-century France. Barrault, Brasseur and Arletty were able to bring to life three richly visual personalities; one full of expressive gesture; one of flamboyant theatricality; one of enigmatic poise. They seem to be behind so many of the people that I have wanted to or been called upon to draw.
The place
It was as a schoolboy that I first encountered Romney Marsh; I loved its sense of remoteness, solitude and infinity. I like visiting those old churches marooned in the grass, with their peeling whitewash spared too much restoration. Then the shore, the shingle and wading birds, and the smell of mud at low tide. It survives, despite the crime against humanity of the Dungeness Power Station.
The play
The memory of Peter Brook's early production of Love's Labours Lost stays with me as something rich with melancholy, wit, and pace; perhaps more eloquent than Brook's more experimental works. It was a wonderful example of how to tell a story in words and images.
The artwork
I could list hundreds of paintings and drawings that have excited me; but if I have to settle for one, perhaps it should be the lithograph by Honore Daumier which hangs - a sort of secular icon - above my bed. This full-length portrait of "M. D'Arco" is first of all a satirical caricature. But in its grasp of form, its grave intensity, the work becomes serious as well, and timelessly impressive.
The music
Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, in the recording by Arthur Grumiaux and Clara Haskill. It's chamber works that speak to me most. In this case, I sense that the violin and piano have a sort of words-and-pictures symbiosis; certainly the elan and fluency of Grumiaux's playing is to me the sound most like pen-drawing.
Quentin Blake's latest book is "Zagazoo" (Cape)
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