32 French Property News May 2015 www.completefrance.com

Caught

Renowned British artist Roy Petley invites Rachel Johnston into the beloved Dordogne home that has inspired a profusion of paintings

I’m gazing longingly at a painting of a girl sunning her back on the banks of the Dordogne river,

straw hat atop her head, and wishing I could be her. The reflections of powder blue sky and ochre trees dance playfully on the water’s surface and the girl holds a parasol away from her as she takes in the scene.

“Oh, I’ve got quite a nice little picture of a girl sitting on the riverbank, I’ll have a dig around for it,” Roy had said, casually, when I’d asked him about the work that had been inspired by his French surroundings. Such modesty hardly correlates with the talents of this renowned artist – who counts members of the Royal Family among his collectors – but it certainly endears him to me.

Scenic routeRoy Petley was one of the first artists to open a gallery on London’s prestigious Cork Street and enjoyed much UK success with his work, which has been likened to that of Constable and Seago. But it’s his debt to French Impressionism that I’m keen to

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on canvas

probe, especially as he has made this elegant country manoir near Bergerac his second home for the last 25 years.

I’ve always been convinced that the Impressionists didn’t just paint France because they were French. Of course, there was inevitable patriotism and the ease with which they could step outside and capture a slice of village life or café culture and the quirks of French society, but there is something about France’s landscapes that

simply begs to be caught on canvas. It seems Roy would agree, having chosen Dordogne as a painting spot before he moved here, and it was for its inspiring waterside setting that he eventually bought this house.

“The river [Dordogne] is just at the bottom of the garden – it’s a great place to work. There’s something quite wonderful about the solitude of it; it keeps you sane. When I’m in London it’s crazy and I’m always so happy to

get back here.”‘Bellissima’, as it is fondly

known, lives up to its name in spades. In a hamlet near the village of Pessac-sur-Dordogne between Bergerac and Libourne, it sits accompanied by a four-bedroom gîte known as ‘Petite Bellissima’ in two hectares of beautiful grounds. Its tranquility is likely owed to its previous residents, a group of nuns – though they were all taken away by the church in 1910 following a pregnancy scandal, Roy chuckles.

“I was down by the river painting away when I first saw this ruin,” he tells me. “I felt very sad about its state. I walked around it; it was all open and broken and you could see the sky from the ground floor, but there was a particular calmness about it.

“I got hold of an agent and asked if he could find out if it was for sale, and he said ‘It’s a ruin! It would cost a fortune to restore that, you’re crazy!’ Anyway I did buy it eventually [in 1989], and we spent five years restoring it. Every penny from exhibitions went into it.”

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State of the artA sign of Bellissima’s former life remains in a narrow chapel window, but it has been otherwise transformed into a home that combines grandeur with cosiness. Classic grey shutters hang against thick honeyed stone and blushing hydrangeas are dotted about.

A courtyard terrace provides ample space for dining and lolling under the sun and, when the heat demands it, a vast swimming pool beckons. “It was hard work, I must say. We used French builders and I think they almost retired after finishing this project,” Roy says. “When I arrived I had no French whatsoever, but by the end of it all I could talk lots to you about building work!”

If this was indeed the industrious builders’ final job, boy did they end on a high. The house boasts a magnificent beamed salon, an integral apartment with its own kitchen and bathroom and no fewer than seven bedrooms, each one spacious and beautifully appointed. Unsurprisingly, it’s been the destination for countless visitors over the years.

“I’ve had so many friends and well-known people dropping their kids off here; during the summer it was always full of children. I remember one of my clients ringing me and saying ‘We’re coming past you on the way to Monte Carlo, could we pop in?’ I said ‘Come and stay!’ and, after initially saying no, they came and fell in love with the place and in the end I couldn’t get rid of them – they were here for four weeks.”

It’s definitely that kind of place; a sort of time-defying ether that draws you in and steals your heart. Roy has travelled widely throughout France and used to take his son down to paint with him in the south, but he finds an incomparable “gentleness” in Dordogne that seems to better suit his artistic style and, interestingly, doesn’t feel it’s as Brit-populated as is widely assumed. There is just one other British family in his immediate vicinity and most of the

Facing page top: Roy and wife Mary in the stunning, art-adorned salon Bottom: ‘Reflective Moments’, an oil on canvas of Mary by Roy Petley This page clockwise from top: Bellissima’s quinquepartite facade; the sitting room with arched windows; the country kitchen with double doors leading outside; the sun-drenched courtyard, ideal for summer dining; Roy’s studio in the converted barn; the dining room, where a painting of the Dordogne countryside takes pride of place

34 French Property News May 2015 www.completefrance.com

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locals he and wife Mary have befriended are French.

Sketching an outlineLooking at the map, the Dordogne-Gironde border actually runs through a section of the river itself near Bellissima (games of ‘one foot in Dordogne, one foot in Gironde’ spring to mind, though admittedly a harder feat when treading water). As I chat to Roy I hear him mention St-Émilion more than once – “I enjoy good red wine”, he laughs, and his claret-clad dining room boasts one of the largest wine racks I’ve ever seen – and, indeed, the capital of viticulture for which Gironde is so well known is just 25km away.

This steeple-crowned medieval town surrounded by sprawling vineyards is a favourite supper spot for Roy and Mary. It is also home to The Little Gallery, owned by a friend, to which Roy has given various paintings over the years.

The river is just at the bottom of the garden. There’s something quite wonderful about the solitude of it; it keeps you sane. When I’m in

London it’s crazy and I’m always so happy to get back here

I’m keen to ask Roy about whether he’s met any fellow painters in the area, but it’s clear that most local residents are more admiring collectors than actual brush-wielders. Some, in fact, are less admiring and more mystified. “I think they see me as a bit of an oddball really, set up with all my easels on the banks of the river. They say ‘Do you still make a living doing that?’”

A living made or not, France is a lifestyle choice for Roy, a place where painting can be a slowly-indulged hobby rather than a commercial pressure amid the frenzy of London. The walls of the salon at Bellissima are groaning with delights from his collection and he converted an old barn beside the house into a wonderful art studio, but it’s en plein air – like the Impressionists – that he most enjoys working, capturing the light on the water with enviable ease.

Mixed mediaRoy’s work has been described as ‘interpreting’ rather than ‘reproducing’ nature, a trait commonly seen in the canvases of Degas, Monet and Renoir – and he admits these big names of the French art scene, together with Vuillard and Bonnard, are his greatest inspiration. “I’m passionate about them and every time I’m in Paris I nip into the d’Orsay and go and have a quick look, to replenish my soul a little bit.” [High-speed trains run from nearby Bordeaux to the French capital in as little as three hours.]

“There’s a few of us who still paint from life. I always say it’s easier than from a photograph and I’d say that to those guys who work laboriously with airbrushes and make photographs look ‘beyond’ photographs. In real life there are soft lines and you can see the roundness of everything; in photographs there’s always that

sharp edge. Capturing light in the flesh is so important.”

As Roy is speaking, another of his creations catches my eye – a sketchy pastel of two girls in a boat on the river entitled simply ‘Reflections of the Dordogne’. In my own early dabbling, I always found this one of the hardest techniques to master, making individual elements meld together believably on the water’s surface. The fact that Roy is largely self-taught makes his work all the more impressive.

Personally, I think I’d rather abandon my palette and take a trip downriver in Roy’s boat or, better still: just sit by the water and sun my back, attempting a different kind of reflection. n

Roy Petley’s house is on the market for €1,272,000 with Beaux Villages ImmobilierTel: 0033 (0)5 56 71 36 59beauxvillages.com

Clockwise from top: Roy and Mary make regular outings downriver in their rowing boat, most of which provide sketching opportunities for Roy; each of Bellissima’s seven bedrooms exudes calm and comfort, combining rustic character features with stylish furnishings and plenty of art on the walls; the house is geared towards summer living with multiple outside spaces enjoyed by both two- and four-legged friends