Throughout the month of August the Bella Luce, in association with Art For Guernsey, is proud to be hosting a solo exhibition of paintings by artist Dimitri Permiakov inspired by and dedicated to the places around Moulin Huet where Pierre Auguste Renoir worked.

Moulin Huet, the bay at the bottom of the lane from the Bella, is a timeless scene with beautiful light that has inspired many people over the years – including such notable creative as Renoir and Victor Hugo, and now Dmitri.

Renoir visited Guernsey with friends in the late summer of 1883, and during his stay he produced about fifteen small paintings of scenes on and around Moulin Huet.  Four of these were landscapes specifically painted for his Parisian dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, the proceeds from which would be used to fund his personal projects that had yet to become critically and commercially successful.  The rest were a series of fast sketches of sea and rocks and unfinished studies of bathers on the beach at Moulin Huet, which it is thought he intended to use as “documents” for painting later pictures back in his studio in Paris.   

“Here people bathe among the rocks which serve as cabins, since there’s nothing else; nothing is more attractive than this mixture of women and men crowded on these rocks. One would believe oneself in a landscape by Watteau rather than in the real world.” - Renoir, in a letter to Paul Durand-Ruel.  September 27th, 1883.

This July, Art for Guernsey celebrated Renoir’s legacy on Guernsey as part of the “Le French Festival”, installing special frames of the vistas that Renoir painted for a guided walk that was incredibly popular and exhibiting an original Renoir that hadn’t been seen in public for over a century alongside modern interpretations of Moulin Huet by Dimitri Permiakov.  Dmitriy was Art for Guernsey’s 2018 Artist in Residence and since his sell-out exhibition last year he has returned several times, most recently in the spring and early summer when he painted an incredible 27 canvases.  It is paintings from this body of work that are currently hanging here on display at the Bella Luce. 

“I fell in love with St Peter Port, the boats and the fishing industry. I am so impressed by the cliffs and neighbouring islands. The atmosphere and special energy here inspired me immediately.”  - Dimitri Permiakov, September 2018

Dimitri Permiakov is one of Russia’s leading artists, hailing from the city of Kirov in western Russia, almost 1000km from Moscow.  He works primarily in oils in the tradition of Russian realistic painting, inspired by the 20th Century Soviet period and the French Impressionists and over the last decade that he has been working as a professional artist his work has been exhibited in Moscow and St Petersburg in the State Hermitage Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Arts, and the Central House of Artists.

Dimitri is no stranger to painting outside “en plein air”, and it was amazing for us and so many other visitors to Moulin Huet to get to see him at work; he works quickly and energetically, dabbing at his canvases in between glancing at the scene in front of him.  His interpretations of Moulin Huet reference Renoirs, but are rendered in Dimitri’s own unique style.

We are incredibly excited and honoured to have Dimitri’s work hanging on the walls of the Bella this summer, and are proud that a talented artist is once again capturing our beautiful local beach for posterity.

Dimitri Permiakov’s oil paintings of Moulin Huet will be on display at the Bella Luce until August 31^st 2019.  We invite you to pay us a visit, to dine or drink in the presence of his artworks or simply to come and view them before continuing on down the lane to visit the locations in his paintings.

Images provided by and copyright of John Ross Photography and Art for Guernsey.