The artist
Life is a journey. We are all on our individual roads. Where they lead is, of course, up to each of us and, sometimes, in the lap of the gods. For Lady Pippa Blake it was a cruel stroke when her husband, yachting legend Peter Blake, was killed by pirates in Brazil. But it was Blake herself who had ensured her life would be a life less ordinary by falling in love with a great adventurer and being open to the exciting life he led. And, it has been Blake who has found the strength and passion within her to carry on after his death and redefine herself.
This week, with the opening of her new exhibition Journey in the Queen St store of Louis Vuitton, there is a sense that she has made it. No longer living in the shadow of a great man, she is Pippa Blake artist, not Pippa Blake widow.
"We have long enjoyed an association with Peter and Pippa Blake and we have witnessed Blake's growth and stature as an artist,"says Louis Vuitton NZ's general manager, Mark Browne, as he explains their decision to invite her to show. "As a company we have work with artists all around the world celebrating the connection between creativity and innovation."
As Blake and I sit in the hot sun on a Sunday morning, surrounded by the sound of cicadas and with the waters of the Hauraki Gulf stretching in front of us, she is tanned, relaxed - dressed in a singlet top and short skirt looking like someone half her age - and extremely open to talking about her incredible personal journey.
I remark how back in an interview in 2004, she'd commented that "it's always been me and Peter, and it's quite hard being just me".
"I think I've reconciled that," she says. "When you're married for 23 years and have a very strong marriage you are you with that person. So when that person is suddenly taken away from you, then whoops, it's like a confidence crisis. It's taken me a while to rebuild my life to a certain extent. And though it seems to be rebuilt with Peter still there - I think I've established myself in my own right, in my own person. I feel I am a much stronger person. And my art career has been central to that."
Blake studied art in London in the 70s, where her adventures consisted of drinking lots of wine, seeing lots of theatre, film, travelling to New York. "They were good times," she laughs.
Then she met Peter and he led her on another path. They had children, sailed around the world, he raced from country to country, they followed. "I couldn't combine the two really. I started to paint again in the early 90s when Peter was doing the America's Cups so we were in one place. And I had an exhibition in 2000 but my work at the time was quite geometric, angular, restrained."
Peter helped her build a studio at their home near England's South Downs, but it wasn't until a few years after his death, after she had been in some very dark and low places, that she truly felt the urge to paint. "I went through a stage a few years ago, perhaps a couple of years after Peter died, thinking 'well, what's the point of it all?'. I have two great children, Sarah Jane and James but...?'
"I hit a bit of a low really - experiencing that incredible loss. The children were in their last years of university and school and I was thinking that now I need to do something. I'd been trying to get back into painting but finding it quite hard. Then I just happened to hear about this post-graduate course nearby - and I thought this is what I need: total immersion for a year, be a full-time student. It was the same year that the children were in their last year of university and school and I felt that we were all working towards something . It was a great experience.
"Something was unleashed and I was able to get back to what it was that I loved about painting; being influenced by abstract impressionism and feeling that pure physicality of mark-making - when something comes from your head, your heart, down your hand and into your work. Part of the course we did was very much concerned with philosophy and aesthetics, and that took you to a slightly deeper level as well. A tutor, Dr Ed Winters, once said 'landscape is but a metaphor for the mind and its contents' and that took me off into a whole new area of understanding.
"By going back to school I think I was able to go back and dig deeper into myself to find what it was that I wanted to say or comment on or express myself.
"It was a great freeing-up process in a way."
And so it is that Blake reveals herself as being a wonderfully complex person. The exhibition Journey includes works from over the past 10 years. The palette she leans towards is quite dark. "People may say that the darkness in the paintings is to do with grief, but to me it's more some sort of soulfulness that might have been there anyway."
A series called Pastoral Nightroad was inspired by driving alone at night on country roads in the dark, seeing car lights looming around corners dramatising the scene. "I think quite deeply and it relates to the human condition, loneliness. I think there is an innate loneliness in car journeys and a sadness."
Another painting, Dulce es Decorum, is apocalyptic; Blake is intrigued by war. "All those young youths going off to war thinking it was going to be glory and triumph and then dying awful deaths in the trenches. I have always been curious of the poets of World War I and this is named after a Wilfred Owen poem."
Internment is a series of three small paintings based on the light and dark of shadow images Blake photographed off the television while watching a film about Auschwitz. Other paintings are brighter, more outgoing, with a vibrant use of paint. Hibernia Prow, for example, was painted after she was an artist in residence on board a ship travelling from Newfoundland to Iceland. "I really wanted a storm while I was on board," she laughs, forever the adventuress, "but the water was flat for the whole three weeks."
Blake laughs that people will be surprised at her deeper, darker side. "I am a soulful person and I can be sad sometimes." She laughs again. "Which is okay. I can be."
And while she enjoys her own space, she admits she can't do it for too long.
"I am very social. I love to dance, I love music, I love to read. I keep fit by running and walking. Travelling is a big part of my life and now my two children are living in New Zealand, I imagine I will be here much more. There will always be a deep connection in New Zealand because of Peter.
"I have been through the dark but now I think I love life even more. Life has become fun again. I am stronger more confident. In many ways I have become more gregarious and outgoing and I am keen to embrace all sorts of new things."
* Pippa Blake - Journey at Louis Vuitton, 56 Queen St, City. 10am-6pm daily until March 28.
The organiser
The last time I spoke to Christine Belanger it was on board a super-yacht in the Mediterranean. We were watching the racing between New Zealand and Italy (Italy won). Cool, calm and collected, she effortlessly hosted the guests of the boat - VIPs from around Europe, international press, the head of Louis Vuitton, Yves Carcelle.
Throughout the day, as the Champagne flowed and wait staff presented an endless array of food, Belanger's mobile rang non-stop. Carcelle's wife had arrived from Paris and would be coming out on a tender to join us; Prince Albert of Monaco's people called to say he, too, would be coming out for lunch; another confirmed aGQ magazine fashion shoot back on shore.
The vision of laid-back elegance, Belanger was as cool as her drink (a "piscine" - an icecube with Champagne poured over it.)
As Events Director for the Louis Vuitton Trophy Series, Belanger is the mistress of the show - on land that is. "I organise everything to do with the trophy village, the hospitality, the venues, the media centre, and all the events around the trophy like the team parties, the prize-giving events and all the other events. I organise the logistics of it all."
Belanger's parties are always ones to remember. In Nice, where the Louis Vuitton Trophy Series was held last November, Belanger and her team threw a soiree for 700 people at a chateau on the top of a hill overlooking the harbour.
"Because it is known as la baie des Anges - the bay of Angels - that was the theme of the night. We had visual entertainment with performers playing with white feathers and dancing in big clear balloons. The marquee was clear to make the most of the view, the food represented all the countries taking part and, of course, we had a big band."
Another night was a sit-down dinner party for 200 in a palace, which ended with Belanger and Carcelle pushing back the tables and doing the can-can with a local busking band.
"This is the creative side of my job. I love working with different people to come up with the concepts," she enthuses.
"The sense of detail is very important, this is the key to a good party. Also to keep a friendly approach and to make people feel easy. The Louis Vuitton Trophy is all about competition with a very high level of sportsmanship but you need also to make people feel good at the end of the day. We believe good contact between the teams is very important, that's why we organise drinks at the end of the day for the teams so everyone can relax and enjoy what is going on."
She won't let on what parties she has planned here in Auckland. Surprise, it seems, is another key ingredient.
The Louis Vuitton Trophy is the company's own event as it is now, after 25 years, no longer involved with the America's Cup. Belanger, who has worked for Louis Vuitton for 20 years, follows the sailing action around the world. Actually, she goes ahead of the action, usually arriving two months before each regatta to set things up. From Auckland she will go to Sardinia where the next event will be held. Home, when she is there, is with her husband in Nice.
"I was born and grew up in Paris but I need to be by the sea," she says with a smile. "Plus there is a very good cultural scene in Nice, Cannes and Monaco that I enjoy - the arts, the opera."
She reports on a regular basis to Carcelle and, when in France, heads to Paris once a week for meetings. It's also a chance to shop. "I will often to go to the Louis Vuitton store and top up on outfits. Along with practical outfits for on the boat, I need to have a few for all the cocktail parties and social events. My other favourite labels are Pucci and Givenchy."
Belanger loves Auckland. She has lived here during the previous America's Cups and is inspired about bringing The Viaduct alive. "Not only for the sailors, but for the people of Auckland. We want them to come to the village, meet with the teams, see the boats. We want them to interact and enjoy the entertainment."
* For more information, see www.louisvuittontrophy.com
The journalist
The Louis Vuitton Village at the Viaduct is made up of many parts: the big screen with seating for those who want to watch the racing, a bar and cafe, shops selling merchandise, the VIP lounge and the media centre. It is here that you will find Italian Rachele Vitello, rubbing shoulders with radio, television, press and magazine journalists, photographers and cameramen. With so many countries involved in the sport, there's plenty of interest around the world. Vitello works for Yacht&Sail TV channel and magazine.
"It covers everything to do with the sea world," she says. "From underwater footage to boats and their engines and, of course, yachting." As with all those associated with the Louis Vuitton contingent, Vitello travels the world following the sailing. For her, however, there is an added attraction - her boyfriend is the bowman on the Italian boat Azzura.
"I've been a journalist for over 10 years, focusing mainly in the areas of economics and finance. My partner and I have been friends for 15 years and together for 10. We used to live on a lake and sail for fun. But when he became a professional yachtsman and I was working as a journalist it took us apart. So [with] me moving to covering yachting, it means that we can be together on a daily basis.
"The other great thing for me is, that unlike many partners of the team members, I have a job that keeps me busy and gives me my own identity. It can be very stressful for a partner. On one hand it is good that I have a job and am not at the dock waiting for him and everything is not depending on his results. On the other, my priority is him and I would give up my job tomorrow if I had to. If he wins we are all happy, if he loses we're not. But he's good because he's not one of those people who gets really moody or lunatic about winning or losing.
"The worst thing is if they make a mistake on the boat. So if they lose a point or lose some metres because of a mistake that is the worst. He feels very guilty.
"In the evenings we have quiet nights. We either eat with the team at one of the restaurants that cook special food for them - pasta, meat and lots of vegetables. But we are always home by 10 and to bed by 11pm. If there is a big race the next day then we have to go home early or not go out at all. But the parties are fantastic fun and a chance to dress up and for couples to have fun together."
Vitello describes life on the yachting circuit as being part of a large family. "It's like it is with a circus. It is the same people going around. So we feel more at home when we are at this event than when we are home, because our friends are here. We see children growing. There are a lot of good vibrations."
