Monet's ghost still painting lilies

061015ASMonet Claude Monet with his friend Robert Jaunay. PICTURE / ALBERT SWORD

At the far side of Virginia Lake, where two wooden bridges span waters carpeted with lilies, stands a man at an easel. Looking a lot like Claude Monet, a long-time lily pond aficionado, the man is focused on his canvas to the exclusion of all else. People approach and take close-up photos, ducks waddle around his feet and even when a gentle rain falls on his felt hat, he remains at his easel.
This interpretation of Monet is the work of Robert Jaunay, artist and retired architect, the man who signed his creation "Robbie". Monet is made from "wood, screws, wire, wire netting, clothes, rabbit fur felt hat, soft toy hair and beard, gardening gloves, cement. glue and paint", and, so far, seems to be surviving the elements and human stupidity quite well.
"I was trying to be anonymous," says "Robbie", who is now resigned to the fact that his secret is out.
There was a Monet exhibition in Wellington a couple of years ago, says Robert. "When you look at Monet's works one of the really obvious things that he painted, and painted many times was a water lily lake with a little curved, green bridge. I was walking around Virginia Lake and at that end of it I could just see what I built. I could see this ghostly guy standing there; Monet painting."
He says the image bugged him so much "that life could not proceed until I'd done it".
It took him a number of weeks to complete and then he got permission from the right people to display it. "I rang them and asked if I could do it. I sent them some photos; they said, yeah, they really like it. I said it was just about surprise and enjoyment for people, and they could see it too. I've got permission to leave it there until the end of the year."
Robert is amazed at his work's durability, putting it down to three coats of acrylic paint. Underneath is a coat that nearly didn't make the installation.
"The tweed coat was gorgeous," says Robert, "I felt I couldn't wreck this; it's an iconic piece of New Zealand clothing. It was beautifully made."
The discovery of an orange stain on the coat changed his mind and it ended up on Monet under grey acrylic.
"The idea of the grey ... it's the ghost of Monet. What I do like about it is that it needs that big setting; you couldn't stick it in a gallery ... it wouldn't be the same."