This Is London
June 15, 2001
MARQUESS'S 'WIFELET' CAUSES A STIR

Her face often appears in the society pages of newspapers and glossy magazines.  She is usually photographed, draped on the arm of her lover, the seventh Marquess of Bath, one of the wealthiest men in Britain.  But Trudi Juggernauth-Sharma, 40, is now revealing another side - her backside.  Her shapely rear is causing a stir at one of London's private members' clubs. A large nude portrait of Trudi's 5.8ft statuesque frame is sitting rather uncomfortably at The Arts Club on the wall of its plush dining hall.

The artist Jonathan Coudrille, also a novelist, said: "I have known Trudi for a long time. She has a wonderful bottom and I felt her personality would be commemorated by the painting."
He first broached the question of the portrait two years ago but it was only three months ago that Trudi stripped at Coudrille's London penthouse above San Carlo restaurant in Highgate.
It took three sittings, with lunch breaks at San Carlo where Coudrille has been exhibiting his work since 1994, to complete the task. Trudi lives in Chelsea but has her own cottage in the grounds of the Marquess of Bath's vast West Country estate, Longleat House.
She is the latest in a long line of girlfriends the 69-year-old aristocrat Alexander Thynn calls his "wifelets".
She said: "I invited Jonathan to Longleat and he was a wonderful guest. A lot of people who come just eat, drink and see what they can get but he played the guitar and entertained everyone."
Trudi, who did a lot of modelling in the 1980s, said: "Jonathan said I had a perfect bottom."
She says she is pleased with 3ft by 2ft painting, worth at least £5,000. "It's very sexual, a view of my back, but you can clearly see it's me because I turn my head."
Despite being a "wifelet", Trudi still goes to work because: "I was working before I met him. I do not want to give that up just to sit in Longleat. I don't think Alexander likes boring women, anyway."
She describes herself as a busy woman juggling three jobs and says she works as a part-time nurse in an intensive care unit, still does modelling and helps sell paintings.
"My patients are over the moon when they hear about me in the papers," she said.
"I would consider going topless if it was for Vogue, Harpers & Queen or Tatler; nice magazines. It depends on the photographer and where the image is going to appear."

The West Briton
September 28, 2000
A SHOW OF ART FROM A MASTER OF ALL MEDIAS

The Lizard painter who believes artists are "organs of God's gift, privileged to serve as the spiritual eyes of humanity and to open a small path of insight" is showing his work in Falmouth.
Jonathon Coudrille is inspired by the crystal light that bathes the sea-margin of The Lizard.
His paintings have the timelessness quality of classical surrealism allied to an intensely personal vision that is very involving.
For his first exhibition at the Up & Above Gallery in Falmouth, Jonathon has revised his usual preoccupation with the sea-margins of his native Lizard Peninsula and has juxtaposed against his familiar intensely rendered tidal strand under towering Cornish skies, the interior and intimate, calling up imagery at once familiar and strange.
He is an author of several illustrated books, including the psychopictographic alphabet called A Beastly Collection and has also found time to fit in a career as a professional musician. 
John Wood, curator of the gallery said "Jonathon is an artist whose intricacy and power of painting match his personality.  Jonathon's latest exhibition is of surreal works undertaken by the artist using an intellectual standard with a technically high quality of draughtsmanship, almost lost in many modern painting techniques.  Some of the works of Coudrille, who has recently exhibited in two London venues, are quite startling, but all are of faultless quality as is the technique involved. 
The 73 paintings, drawings and prints have made a big impact on all those who have been here already. 

Western Morning News
September 01, 2000
SURREALIST'S ROLE AS AN "ORGAN OF GOD'S GIFT"
Multi-talented surrealist Jonathon Coudrille grew up in Cornwall and is now based at Cadgwith. 
He had the good fortune to study with Denis Mitchell and John Tunnard but, following his first solo show when in his 20s at the inaugural Harrogate Festival, he left the county and was not to return until a decade ago.
According to Jonathon, artists are "organs of God's gift", people who are, as he says "privileged to serve as the spiritual eyes of humanity, and to open a small path of insight, to illuminate a little of the mystery".
As an "organ of God's gift" he certainly plays a merry tune both as a musician and painter.
If nothing else, the 30 or so works that make up this exhibition, from his Nocturnal Nudes that seem to haunt rather than dwell bodily within their mirrored rooms, to Les Nuits de Quebec, pictures that capture the period when he worked as a professional musician playing in venues ranging from London's Albert Hall to French Canadian and Far Eastern strip clubs, not to mention his symbol-filled essays in surrealism, mysterious landscapes of the inner eye, demonstrates that he can certainly draw.  Engaging and most enjoyable.

St Ives Times
August, 1999
MASTERS OF DIFFERENT MOODS OF LIGHT
… although he will hate me for saying so, think Salvador Dali but without the distortions or perversions in the subject matter.  With Coudrille we are looking at the serious technical precision of received technique painstakingly learnt and practised.  If you express admiration for his "style" he will tell you to admire it because it is the "proper" way to paint.  The concerns are with proper proportion and harmony in his compositions.  Their impact is stunning.
In a curious way the surrealism, while obvious in his style, is less so in dreamscape.  His views tend to be of real places.  What happens in these real landscapes is both figurative and symbolic.  It is the surrealism of peaceful days reflecting the peace of Cornwall and with something of a post-apocalyptic feel with many of prophetic nightmares of the early surrealist resolved.
With Jonathon Coudrille you hit pure gold - Toni Carver

The Western Morning News
August 18, 1999
MAGICAL COLOURS IN AN OASIS OF PEACE
The historic manor of Trelowarren near Helston is hosting a summer exhibition by Jonathon Coudrille, which continues in the main house for this week and next.
His meticulous oil paintings, with a magical use of colour, have an individual drama, whether they be the superb figure of Vivienne or the noon tide flotsam of seabeach with cork, shell and rope on the shore.
The body of his St Ives work was destroyed in the early 1970s and the handful of pictures from this period on display are from the family collection.
He also includes a display of prints from the original illustrations of his 1974 book "A Beastly Collection".
Coudrille's recent work shows a gorgeous use of blue in the clarity of sky and sea.
The exhibition is a tonic to the senses.