Art Imitates Life

Often in life it’s a case of being in the right place at the right time, and Tarn-based sculptor and jeweller David Kemp knows this more than most. He tells Scheenagh Harrington how he came to set up his own studio near Albi.

- Scheenagh Harrington

Tales of Brits moving to France often involve them looking for a new life or seizing the opportunity to retire to the sunshine. Nottingham- born artist David Kemp, however, doesn’t fit the usual pattern, but the Tarn-based sculptor doesn’t mind in the slightest.

“I came to France to find my wife,” he quips, but there is a little more to his story than that. He arrived in 2002 to help his brother renovate a property he had bought in Gaillac, north-east of Toulouse.

The timing couldn’t have been better, as David explains, while chipping away at a carving amid the noise and bustle of a small quarry. “I was having a rough time one way or another. I think you could say I was suffering from depression. I came over and worked on my brother’s place and it was freezing cold and there were no home comforts.”

RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE

Despite the hardships, David was struck by an idea. “I was an art teacher and was pretty good at it, so I had this idea of creating an arts centre. However I didn’t speak the language at all, except for maybe bonjour and oui and non, and I would nod sagely when people were speaking to me, thinking I understood what they were saying but mostly didn’t.”

David soon realised his grand ambition was beyond his organisational capabilities, so instead poured his energies into cleaning up his farmhouse in the tiny village of Padiès, around 20 minutes from Albi.

After spending his days clearing out “wobbly, cobbled-together chicken houses, rabbit hutches, busted vehicles and rubbish that had been lying around for the best part of a century,” he felt happy with the property. “It felt like a new start,” he says. “It was a beautiful place at the end of a lane with beautiful views. It was tranquil with a capital T.”