Hindustan to Malabar

MARTIN YEOMAN
HINDUSTAN TO MALABAR 2002
Offer Waterman and Co, London

Foreword by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

'I am delighted that Martin Yeoman is holding an exhibition of his latest paintings of India at Offer Waterman & Co, and am particularly pleased to see that in this current exhibition Martin has included several pictures of ancient Indian monuments, such as the Begumpur Mosque and Humayun's Tomb in Delhi.

I was first introduced to Martin and his work by the late Sir Brinsley Ford in l985, and was immediately impressed by the outstanding draughtsmanship which underpins all his work - the result, of course, of the late Peter Greenham's inspiration at the Royal Academy. I invited him to tour with me to the Gulf States the following year, and he subsequently accompanied me on further tours to India and Hong Kong, recording the way of contemporary life in these countries.

One of Martin's great talents lies in his handling of pen and ink and silver point drawing technique which have produced some wonderful, sensitive and evocative results. I frequently found that the work he did while accompanying me on various tours so impressed those he came in contact with that he would be asked to return at a later date and carry out further commissions. As you can perhaps imagine, this gave me great pleasure to see the work of artists like Martin receiving the attention they deserved...

The presence of a travelling artist on such official visits overseas adds a very special dimension to these expeditions and, whenever the opportunity arose (far too rarely) to paint in the company of an artist like Martin, I found I benefited a great deal from a few technical hints here and there...

I am sure the visitor will find this exhibition both rewarding and enjoyable, and I can only wish Martin all possible success with his continuing ventures.'

Charles

Hindustan to Malabar by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

' "Myriadism of impossible picturesqueness!!!" exclaimed Edward Lear on his arrival in Bombay. "These hours are worth what you will..."

For a painter in India, the infinity of subjects is mind-blowing, the limitations of time maddening. One must have an itinerary. Martin's unusually, dated back to the fourteenth century and Ibn Battutah, the Arab traveller whose Indian memoirs form one of the most fascinating accounts of the country ever written. I set out to follow the Moroccan's adventure on the ground; Martin came too, and opened my eyes to much that only a painter could see.

Our modes of transport - or mobile studios - were various autorickshaws in Delhi, cycle rickshaws in Aligarh, a Kerala boat sewn together with coconut fibre and, for some 2,500 miles, that beautiful dinosaur on wheels - the Hindustan Ambassador motor car. They took us to places rarely visited. We were officially dubbed the First Tourists in Bid, a small town in Maharashtra; and few other Englishmen could have been ritually whacked with peacock feathers at the shrine of the Deccan saint Burhan al-Din. Amid such distractions, and bureaucratic wranglings over Easel permits, amid the crowds who gathered to watch his novel form of bazaar magic, Martin observed calmly and produced a body of work of rare quality. Part of its distinction lies in its immediacy. Another part, perhaps, in its humility; whatever his subject - a rajah or a ploughman, the Taj Mahal or a teapot - Martin approaches it with the same devotion and, magically, ennobles even the mundane.

As a writer on the road I have much to thank him for, not least his eyes (what I saw as a green mosque was, to him, Prussian blue, Naples yellow, viridian and gold ochre) and his felicitous phrases (the Delhi Ring Road was "Ben Hur…. with a cast of millions"). But what may be most precious in a fellow-traveller is sheer delight of response: "She's a Rembrandt!" he whispered to me during our audience with the aged Bibi of Cannanore, "She's a Delacroix!" These moments are worth what you will; Martin's paintings, pastels and drawings are their record.'

Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Travel Writer
Author of Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land
Travels with a Tangerine