Jonathan Meuli

Jonathan Meuli - The Art Of Making Wine Take me to exhibition details

Iram indeed is gone with all its Rose,
And Jamshyd's Sev'n-ring'd Cup where no one knows;
But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields,
And still a Garden by the Water blows.

from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (translated by Edward FitzGerald)

The pigment pattern of the skin of Vitis vinifera varies from light greenish yellow to russet, to pink, red, reddish violet, or blue-black; the juice is generally colourless, although some varieties have a pink to red colour, and the flavour varies from quite neutral to strongly aromatic

from Encyclopedia Britannica

"As the title suggests, this is a body of work about wine - about making it - the pruning the gathering and the pressing, the fermenting and the processing.

These paintings are the result of a fifteen month stay in the wine-making commune of Marigny Brizay in the Haut Poitou. Marigny lies on the slopes of a low chalky escarpment that rises above a great chequered plain full of sunflowers and maize that stretches southward from the Loire for mile upon mile. We stayed there as a family.

The vineyards that I was mostly painting belonged to the Chateau des Roches. Others belonged to Ampelidae (www.ampelidae.com).

The paintings are about the whole of the wine-making process - and they form a loosely-structured narrative, but they are not a scientific documentation: they are a re-working of the aspects that I found were the most visually exciting. Some of these are nostalgic, like the hand-picking of grapes. Some are not, like the industrial and chemical processes that go to make the wine - an explosion of energy which takes place at the grape harvest each year.

I don't think that the paintings are specific to Marigny or Chateau des Roches, or even to France. They are about wine-making itself, which is much the same the world over. They are a celebration of the labour that produces the wine.

Colour. Colour and line preoccupy me more and more as I work on these paintings. Black is a colour that I took out to France from Scotland, and light yellow-green - the colour of the buds - the colour of the Vienne - is the colour that I brought home to Glasgow.

Quite a few of the larger paintings, in particular, are based on the triptych form. Sometimes there is an obvious triple division of the surface, sometimes you have to look for it more carefully. The triptych is a form which has always interested me. It enables you, within the context of one work, to present multiple views. There is no one way to look at things - no one truth." Jonathan Meuli

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Jonathan Meuli Curriculum Vitae

Reviews and Articles

Jonathan Meuli Image Gallery - Available Works

A Garden..

In The Fire Of Spring

How Little While..

Where I Made One

Amber Coloured

Alternate Night And Day

He Bid Me Taste..(I)

He Bid Me Taste..(II)

..The Blowing Rose

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Specific Yeasts

Best From The East

Not Too Dry..

Commonly Called Foxy

In A Cold Room

Secret Well Of Life

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..His Darker Draught

A Moderate Consumption

..Daughter Of The Vine

In A Winding Sheet..

Among That Earthen Lot

It's Origin Is Unknown

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A Snare Of Perfume

Many Knots Unravel'd

Made Into Vermouth

Lip To Lip

A Little Hour Or Two

Cooling Coils

Morning Of Creation

..Of Superior Quality

So Ancient

Crushed And Stemmed

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Kindle To Love

Light Dry White

Vitis Vinifera

You Drink

Ancient Methods

Bearing A Vessel

One By One

Wild Yeasts

One Glimpse Of It

Like Snow

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Marigny BrizayIX

Marigny Brizay VIII

Marigny Brizay VII

Marigny Brizay VI

Marigny Brizay V

Mrigny Brizay IV

Marginy Brizay III

Marginy Brizay II

Marginy Brizay I

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The Stars Are Setting

The Juice Is Generally...

Wih Logic Absolute

The Chosen Strain

Magic Shadow Show

We Phantom Figures

Come Fill The Cup

An Angel Shape

Secondary Fermentation

Bouquet Or Aroma

The Skilen Tassel

..Lighter In Body

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Sweet

Eqyptian Inscriptions

That Yellow Cheek

No Such Aureate Earth

A Door To Which..

Played The Infidel

Mainly Red & Dry

In That Old Potter's Shop

One More Impatient I

This Delightful Herb

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One More Impatient II

The Literature Of Many

The Seventh Gate II

..Entire Crushed grape

Seventh Gate I

Dawn Of Reckoning

Rolling Heaven Itself

Qualities Of Table Wines

..The Nightingale Cries

..Throne Of Saturn

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Louis Pasteur

Semitropical Conditions

..Within The Tavern

Some Buried Caesar

The Cork Stopper

With Shining Foot

Cut From The Vine

Star-Scattered

Grand Cru

..Oaken Cooperage

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Wash Out A Word

This Earthen Bowl

Springs Unseen

..When Overripe

Honey, Herbs, Cheese...

A Noose Of Light

Once Did Live

Not Waterlogged..

Turn Down An Empty..

Enologists Do Not Agree

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A Blind Understanding

..Cool Temperatures

..Causes Of Spoilage I

..Causes Of Spoilage II

Jonathan Meuli Image Gallery - Archive

Durch Not Und Freude

Hell Suspended

Light Traffic

Loch Etive

Many Great Works

Mugdock One

Mugdock Two

Of Good And Evil

Raising The Price

Truce

With our contemporary art gallery in Glasgow City Centre, we at Tracey McNee Fine Art aim to supply quality mid-career artists' works to the discerning collector. The gallery exhibits varied works with an emphasis on high quality figurative oil paintings from Scottish artists.