Walker in Tirol
The Austrian Tirol is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. But it is the people and their interaction with the land that makes it such a fascinating place. Springtime is the most peaceful time in the mountains. The skiers have gone home. The land recovers from winter. In their burrows the marmots have already dreamed the year to come.
I have spent much of the past ten years in Vill, near Innsbruck. In 2000, when I was there in the early Spring writing stageplays THE COMEDY TEAM and TUSKERS, I made one hundred pastel drawings, of the Alpine pathways, mountains, daily life and party life in Innsbruck, and the local election campaign following the fateful general election which brought Jörg Haider's far-right FPÖ into the governing coalition. The pictures were made with Holbein, Jaxon, Guitar and Caran d'Ache pastels.
| MARDI GRAS
Every Mardi Gras the normally reserved Innsbruckers dress up in pecuilar costumes and go crazy. There is a parade. Everyone goes ape. Some folk dress as chickens. Over in Klagenfurt Jörg Haider dolled himself up as Robin Hood. It's not quite Rio but is just as unforgettable. For a few hours another world bursts out with rules and visions of its own. It is a better place.
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Men dressed as chickens take refreshments at a street bar.
Innsbruck, Mardi Gras, 7/Mar/00
Oil pastel on paper
21 x 30cm
$125
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Man with a false nose in his daft little car.
Innsbruck, Mardi Gras, 7/Mar/00
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People dressed as Euros.
Innsbruck, Mardi Gras parade, 7/Mar/00
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Men dressed as clowns meet a man with a life-long aversion to clowns.
Innsbruck, Mardi Gras, 7/Mar/00
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Street cleaning vehicle.
Hall in Tirol, Apr/00
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Men riding their remarkable machine, helping to build the new Tivoli Stadium.
Innsbruck, 21/Apr/00
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Police dealing with a senseless drunk.
Museumstrasse, Innsbruck, 12/Apr/00
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Police stopping a carload of Turks and asking questions.
Innsbruck, 15/Apr/00
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Aufguss in a sauna.
Innsbruck, Apr/00
Oil pastel on paper
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Eating pizza in the street.
Innsbruck, 18/Mar/00
Oil pastel on paper
21 x 30cm
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| ELECTION TIME AGAIN
These were local and provincial elections, following the notorious general election the previous Fall which brought the far-right FPÖ a share of power. The 21st century is shaping up and beginning to show its character to those with eyes to see.
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Vexed man giving out FPÖ leaflets.
Innsbruck, 13/Mar/00
Oil pastel on paper
21 x 30cm
$125
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FPÖ man chats up a girl with sore feet, while wafting her chest with an offensive leaflet.
Innsbruck, 13/Mar/00
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21 x 30cm
$125 |
Election poster on wheels.
Innsbruck, 4/Apr/00
Oil pastel on paper
21 x 30cm
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Election folly: large plastic barrel thing obstructing the pavement.
Maria-Theresienstrasse, Innsbruck, 4/Apr/00
Oil pastel on paper
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Why was this man not given a leaflet?
Innsbruck, 15/Mar/00
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Free balloons at election time.
Innsbruck, 4/Apr/00
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| HILL AND VALE
It seems that I have walked over every inch of Tirol. But there are always new places to explore. Below are studies of sheep, living their sheepish lives on mountain pastures, and 4 studies of Serles (2718 metres), a favourite mountain in the Stubai Valley, which I climbed last summer and will again this summer. This is the face it shows to those walking towards it up the valley. But on its other side is a wonderland of dips, scree, wild crags, hoodoos, lost souls and edelweiss.
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Black sheep wondering while watching white sheep and bleating lamb.
12/Mar/00
Oil pastel on paper
21 x 30cm
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Serles and Habicht: two great mountain characters from the Stubai valley.
13/Mar/00
Oil pastel on paper
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Serles: morning, crows, and moon.
26/Apr/00
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Serles at sundown.
2/Apr/00
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21 x 30cm
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Serles with head in clouds.
17/Apr/00
Oil pastel on paper
21 x 30cm
$125 |