Freddy in Majorca

Freddy spent every summertime during the sixties on Majorca, the beautiful island in the sun. He would rent one of the houses in the tiny village of Fornalutx under the Puig Major mountain. There were orange groves, olive trees, blue flowering morning glory climbing up the walls, an abundancee of enormous red geranium plants like bushes, and the colours of the land were rich and exotic. One old, large taxicab took passengers up and down only twice a day to the town of Soller, stopping just once half way down at the hamlet of Bini Raix. Freddy stayed there one year to paint the orange grove and the extraordinary pink-red colour of the earth (see painting in this exhibition.)

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Artists were drawn to Fornalutx, once they discovered it. Writers such as Dolores Pala stayed there with her artist husband, Juan, of Spanish origin,

whose main home was Paris. Always there were a few visitors, taking respite from their urban existence. The inhabitants, the maids who cleaned and cooked for this summer invasion were beautiful and dignified girls. It was truly paradise, sometimes of course with its underside: Robert Graves who lived ten kilometers away at Deya, pretended that Fornalutx was built on iron foundations, and bred witches who practiced their secret craft. Nevertheless, he visited when invited to parties or social events, often surrounded by his entourage of admiring young men.

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For Freddy who loved colour and landscape, it was idyllic. He spent the morning preparing canvas, stretching it, and cleaning brushes, then after lunch walking to find exciting places to paint in the village or the surrounding countryside.

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As in other southern lands, there was always a week of fiesta. A bull which had been kept and nurtured near the top of the mountain was brought down to the village at dawn by young men. They restrained this boisterous bull with long ropes attached to each of its horns. Some villagers walked up the fields to meet it, while others waited in the square. It was teased and tormented by the local boys until exhaustion, then the killing took place in the small slaughterhouse

much to the delight of local children and to the horrow of visitors who tried to shield their children from the sight of this cruelty. In Soller at midnight on that day the main square became alive with the sound of crackers exploding like the noise of gunfire. This was the ancient ritual, whose meaning was never divulged to strangers.

Constance Gore

"All Painting is Abstract Painting"

Although best known for his glorious landscapes, in the 1950s the influence of Abstract Expressionism arrived on these shores, and Freddy immersed himself totally in this new way of expressing what he saw..