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D U R A N D 
C H R O N O L O G Y :N E W
Early Work
1986-1995
1996-2000
New
Durand, Seven Sisters
Sussex
Annunciation
(detail)
Annunciation
(detail)
Annunciation
(detail)
Pasiphae
(detail)
Incarnation at Bosham
2001
London, Syros, Athens, Milan, Sussex and Suffolk
Durand's first artistic explorations of the English countryside. Working in and around Aldeburgh, Didling, Bosham and Polesdon Lacy, he begins his WHOLLY PICTURES series, still in progress.
Impressed by the ancient beauty of the South Downs, Durand adapts his palette to the light-filled blues of sky and water, the greens of grass and woodland, and white clouds of England, keeping Christian myths alive by placing Holy Land events in rural England.
s a c r e d
ANNUNICATION, DIDLING
THE DEPARTURE OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA, POLESDON LACEY
MYSTIC LAMB, DIDLING
SOLOMON, SHEBA & MENLIK, POLESDON LACEY
INCARNATION AT BOSHAM
Viewing the progress of Durand’s WHOLLY PICTURES is an apotheosis of delight; I feel as a long departed yet graceful spirit, gliding gently over these paintings' lithesome glazes and impasto with their crisp blue skies and Gnostic sense of being; I see Bosham, I see Didling, but also I see the light of holiness - yet it is more; for I use the term ‘apotheosis’ guardedly.
Durand, ever the poet within the painter, has seen Jerusalem upon our shores and encapsulated its innocence in the hues of the true painter’s music. He gives us truth, with which to open our mind’s eye.
I had little noticed some time ago that Durand’s recent discovery of the eternal Sussex downlands so profoundly encapsulates in these pictures that quality of symbolism to be found in the early Celtic Church; for Durand’s WHOLLY PICTURES, like the Sussex landscape, display the innocent hope of that bygone era: they are redolent of that special quality of the Celtic rite: its openness, its purity, but most of all its nigh unblemished virginity.
Am I glad that I waited before commenting on ANNUNCIATION AT DIDLING? I've spent the past 30 minutes letting my eyes, yet again, brush over its beauty before writing this.
The colour balance, specifically in the distant rolling downs, is restrained and well modulated. The muted tones draw the eye to the imperative foreground action. Here, there is a sense of urgency - an immediacy that reminds us that the erasing of Christianity is going on all too smoothly, all too stealthily. There could never be a more important time in history for these paintings, wholly pictures in every respect that demand to be looked at on a regular basis, to arrest a movement: these pictures are like the swell before a tide.
The young and graceful Gabriel, nude and with tousled, hip hair - carried within that time sensitive 'blue streak' - has an important message not just for the exquisite prepubescent Blessed Virgin, but for all of us. The confirmation of Gabriel's message is in the eyes of the Mystic Lamb, who looks directly at us objectively. Is the message one of joy or of despair?
The foreground colour scheme is calculated to emphasize the modern predicament we are in. The blue of the peacock and the blue current rushing about Gabriel are echoes of the greatest of mysteries: the Resurrection.
In this 21st century ANNUNCIATION AT DIDLING as in the haunting interpretation of INCARNATION AT BOSHAM, or in PASIPHAE, we are privy to a mirage – or is it a miracle? Is it a rebirth of painting? These pictures are acts of devotion, replete with memories and appealing to our higher selves. They are holistic pictures to be sure.
David Elkington, historian and author
Camilla Currey
Isabelle Currey
Louisa Currey
(detail)
Roseanna Currey
2002
London
SUSSEX CHILDREN AND LANDSCAPES
for the benefit of St. Richards Hospital, Chichester
p o r t r a i t
ALICE, CAMILLA, ISABELLE, LOUISA and ROSEANNA CURREY
CHRISTOPHER, RAURI AND ISABEL EDWARDS
ALBERT O'ROURKE
H H John Paul II
Westminster Cathedral
2004
London
p o r t r a i t
H H JOHN PAUL II
Durand painted a second version of his celebrated portrait of John Paul II for a special exhibition in London's Westminster cathedral to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Holy Father’s ascendancy to the Throne of St. Peter.
The portrait was displayed in St. Joseph's chapel, an appropriate setting, in view of the Polish pontiff’s devotion to St. Joseph, attesting to the all-embracing spiritual resonance of Durand's portrait.
Simultaneously, Durand's 1983 portrait of John Paul II was installed in its permanent home in Warsaw at the Knights of St. John’s newly restored seat.
Europa,
Racton Tower, Sussex
Kronos
(detail)
DURAND'S KRONOS
Most people today have more confidence in the brotherhood of man than in the fatherhood of god. To Goya Saturn was a father who digested his own children rather than let them grow up to get the better of him, so the artist shows us a cannibal god chewing bloodily on the figure of a naked woman.
In Durand’s creation of the myth we see its true meaning; we see the devious-devising Titan who castrated his father in order to depose him standing with the ritual sickle of the castration under his foot and opening his mouth to swallow whole his own issue in order to avoid his own deposition. The infant, incidentally, is deprived of identity by being parceled up in swaddling clothes.
Kronos in Durand’s painting is also Chronos, Time, which eats up its own progeny. The savagery of Kronos’s intentions is to be seen in the wildly disordered hair, the pitilessness of his stare and the association with the death-knell complete with its support system of bell ringer invited by a ladder to toll out the destruction of life - all part of the paraphernalia of the church on which Kronos stands.
Partly because myths have been so systematically retold for children it is important when giving form to them neither to expurgate nor prettify them. Durand never does.
Peter Green’s definition of myth is any central fact of human experience which is given dramatic, universal or personalized form by way of explanation or enlightenment. In this case what we see is an uncomfortable but all too familiar form of fatherhood which, as elsewhere in Greek myth, demonstrates the gap between the primitive and the civilized.
Oonagh Lahr, poet and classical scholar
London September 2004
Saint John the Evangelist
2006
DURAND WHOLLY PICTURES
Durand Wholly Pictures, a major exhibition of paintings, toured Sussex churches and cathedrals from May to September, 2006.
This culminated in an exhibition at St John's Chapel, Chicester, from October 2 to November 5. For this event Durand painted SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST. An on-line exhibition to celebrate the picture and St John's Chapel, from which Durand drew inspiration, is featured in Durand Gallery Exhibitions.
SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST on-line exhibition
For this major exhibition, Durand conceived of a new website.
Daniel in the Lions Den
2007
DANIEL IN THE LIONS' DEN to benefit Demelza
On November 29th, 2007, a new picture, Daniel in the Lions' Den, was unveiled at ZSL London Zoo. TheAsian Lions depicted were sketched by Durand at the zoo earlier in the year.
The picture, and the Idea Fine Art limited edition prints of the picture, each signed and numbered by the artist, are to be benefit Demelza Hospice Care for Children, www.demelza.org.uk
As Durand has said: ‘almost all the young people that inspire me to paint them have something in common. I am convinced that I have met them before in a painting. When I consider the teenage behavior of the deities and saints in mythology or the Bible, not to mention heroes and heroines, the kids in my pictures are appropriate symbols of such protagonists.’ How suitable therefore, for Durand to have represented the bravery of Daniel confronting death amongst the lions as a tribute to Demelza’s dedication and sensitivity to the uniqueness of the physical, social, intellectual, emotional, cultural and spiritual needs of every child and their family.
To order an exclusive print of DANIEL IN THE LIONS' DEN or BLESSING THE BULL click here.
Durand, Sussex
D U R A N D C H R O N O L O G Y : N E W
Early Work
1986-1995
1996-2000
New
T O P
H O M E
P R O J E C T S