Posts filed under 'Art'
Gwynedd museum and art gallery in north Wales are showing two of my paintings in the exhibition “The Quality of Things” They are two paintings about my late Grandparents on my mothers side which I made in the mid 1990’s which seems and extremely long time ago now. They were responses to people who meant a lot to me in their old age and subsequent death and these two paintings reflect that theme. Below are the two labels which describe my thoughts about the paintings. If you click on the image they should enlarge.
THERE’S NO SUBSTITUTE – GLADYS AND WALTER GREAVES
This is a portrait of my Grandparents Gladys and Walter Greaves in their terraced house in Bloxwich, just outside Walsall in the West Midlands. I knew that they were both getting older and I wanted to capture them both in their home. I made this painting in 1993.
The theme of the painting is “natural forms and synthetic forms”. If you look at the painting Walter is eating an apple which he used to get from the back of the local supermarket when they got rid of them because they were bruised . He has cut the bruises out and it almost echoes the facial characteristics of his face, for example the eye sockets. I made this comparison because the apple is a natural form with natural life cycles in that it is conceived, born, lives , dies. Over on the washing tub there is some decorative artificial fruit and Gladys’ artificial leg because she had both legs amputated through diabetes though she rarely wore the very heavy legs and they were positioned around the house. The fruit and the legs are the synthetic, man made reproductions of natural forms to echo the theme that no matter how technologically advanced we are we can’t compete with nature.
I wanted a sense of “Oldness” in the painting, an old house, old people and old objects with the sense that time is running out. When we talk about “Portraiture” we talk about “Immortalising” somebody and I have always thought that there is a very strong link between Portraiture and Mortality and an inevitable demise which is why I have always felt portraiture to be so very significant.
The portrait is composed in two very basic shapes, a rectangle and a triangle. The rectangle travels around the edges of the painting, up and across the visible and covered pipe work and down the door frame and the triangle is hinted at with the perspective lines of the washing tub and the top of the triangle is the coat hanger above Walter’s head. I have tried to create depth by using both perspective and colour. There is a simple , one point perspective which creates visual depth and warmer reds and oranges in the foreground bring that area closer to the viewer and the oranges and blues, the cooler tones, help the portrait recede in the background area.
MEMORIAL PAINTING -(diptych) – GLADYS AND WALTER GREAVES
In 1995 my grandparents , Gladys and Walter Greaves both died at the age of 90 years old. They were both important to me and I had painted , photographed and drawn them on many occasions.
The first time that I visited their house following their death was quite an emotional experience at the time. It suddenly hit me that they were gone and this momentary core sensation prompted me to make this piece of work which in many ways was a cathartic process.
As I stood in the still and silent living room it brought many memories. It was asif these memories were actually floating around in the room but they were actually floating around in my head . There seemed to be this dual space where the memories simultaneously resonated , in my head and in the room. From this I became interested in seeing the four brick walls as a metaphor for the human skull which contained these memories.
All of their possessions were left untouched in exactly the same place that they had previously been. There was a tremendous sense of absence and emptiness in the house. I began to look around at the objects which provoke these memories and realised how important they had suddenly become as a reference and reflection of their identity. At first glance they are seemingly banal but since their death the personal importance and value of the objects has been elevated and they exist in a new context as an extension and a reminder of them both.
The act of painting these ordinary objects also elevates their importance from the merely banal and I became interested in the relationships between “still life” and “mortality”. Even though there are no figures in this painting I still see it as a portrait
August 1st, 2011
Anne and me went to the BP Portrait Award dinner and ceremony a few weeks ago which was excellent as ever. When it came to announcing the winner there was a live link to Channel 4 news with Jon Snow but there was a delay witha previous item on the news and everybody was stood around in abject silence staring at eachother with raised eyebrows and baited breath for the link to happen which kind of killed the moment a little.
It’s a nice mixed show this year, it’s got more of a feel of the mid 90’s BP Awards about it I think which is much better, I felt it was getting a too photorealist some years. I really liked Al Freney’s painting “At this time of night ” with the Warhol t-shirt on. I really like the idea of a portrait with the figure repeated in two different poses, it’s something I’ve thouht about on a few occasions , especially with very specific sitters who it would work very well with. I like the economy of the painting and the background resonates extremely well I think. Isobel Peachy’s portrait of RH is lovely too, very traditional, I guess Rembrandt / Sargent esque but like Mike Gaskell’s portrait of his son it has a real warmth.
Edward Sutcliffe’s portrait of Glenda Jckson is a very striking portrait. Edward comes from my neck of the woods and as an enthusiastic A Level student came to my studio a few times to pick up tips and write an essay for his A level project. That must have been over 10 years ago now, I think I was painting “Harry Coleman” the first World War veteran when he came. I don’t think I’d like to have been at Glenda’s unveiling though, my God, Tony Blair’s tenure has surely taken its toll on her because she looks so old.
I have really admired Alan Coulson’s work over the past few years, infact I met him briefly and was a lovely guy. I like his detatched portrait of the lady in beautifully coloured turbon. I was a little disorientated by the coloured eye lashes initially but I think they add something to the portrait now.
It’s on until the end of September so if you’re in London and have a free hour drop in , it’s free too.
July 13th, 2011
The National Portrait Gallery has just released a new book charting the last 20 years of the BP Portrait Award which makes it Britain’s longest running sponsored competition. I haven’t got a copy yet, I ment to get one when I was in London last week but my train was too close to leaving so I couldn’t call in. It’s a lavishly illustrated hardback and I suspect there’s about 4 of my paintings in there. Here’s a link to the page;
http://www.npg.org.uk/business/publications/500-portraits-bp-portrait-award.php
July 13th, 2011
I remember the first time I saw John Salt ‘s work. It was as a keen 14 or 15 year old in Bloxwich library around 1983. There was a fantastic huge thick book on Photorealism and it had Chuck Close in, Richard Estes etc… I guess Chuck Close hit me hardest but I saw John’s paintings and thought , ( aside from admiration for the technique) “wow, those paintings are so creepy”, and I imagined what crazy people lived in those caravans in those trailer parks. Now I still think that when I see them…although, in the passage of time they also make me think of “My Name is Earl” too. I still find it strange how people find eachother and end up doing and founding things together, how John left Birmingham in the late 60’s for America and ended up founding super realism with Chuch Close. I guess in the internet days relationships are built much more easily but back then it must have felt a bit like a voyage. John shows in the same gallery as me and is deply admired by all of the artists who came up for the show from all corners of the country as you can see in the pre show drink.
May 9th, 2011
Here are a few shots from the recent show in London at Plus One with Philip Harris ahd Simon Hennessey. The guy infront of my painting “The Curious Case of the Levitating, Tattoed Man” is Ray, the subject of the painting and he is able to levitate approximately 12 cm off the ground for about 30 seconds at a time when he is in his meditative state.
Phil and Simon made some great work for the show and it was a real buzz showing with them in a figurative basd show.
May 9th, 2011
Here’s a portrait of Anne’s excellent niece, Kate. She came around to my studio one Sunday morning and put on a selection of hats, the one on the right I have used in quite a few portraits and I always think a beret looks incredibly cool and I liked this image ( on the left) because it felt quite timeless, almost asif it could have come from the 1940’s.
She’s not quit as solemn as she is in these drawings, I asked her to look serious.
It’s a drawing on A2 size paper so the overall mounted size is just bigget than A1
May 9th, 2011
click to enlarge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWQwFSpsXWc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY36gf62nzU
Here is a recently finished drawing of the Birmingham based Jazz musician Andy Hamilton CBE. I think Andy is now around 92 years old. He’s been playing in and around Birmingham for years as well as internationally. I saw him years ago at The Bear jazz club in Birmingham where he played weekly for years. I’ve been meaning to catch up with him for a long time, a little like Kitty, and back in the summer I arranged to go around to his house for a sitting which went wonderfully. When I arrived he came gliging down the staircase on his stair lift dressed in his perfectly appropriate pin striped suit and trilby clutching his saxophone. Andy is exactly the kind of sitter I love to paint or draw because he looks so fantastic and authentic and also because of my interest in music.
This one will be in the show at Plus One.
February 27th, 2011
invitation-black-and-white-1.pdf – (click on link)
The Frissiras Museum , Athens. 2/3/11 – 31/7/11
The Frissaris Museum is about to stage an exhibition called “Black and White”. It features work from their collection of drawings, etchings paintings and lithographs. They sent me a catalogue yesterday because they are showing one of my paintings and it looks like a great show. I like the poster with the fantastic Greek typography. Quite a lot of the artists are Greek and I’m not familiar with most so it’s lovely to see what they are up to. There are a few names I recognise, Aurback, Hockney and Rego so we’re all certainly in good company. It’s nice to see galleries doing shows in monochrome, it’s a wonderful area to explore.
Americans Now, The Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. Continues until 10th July.
http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/americansnow/index.html
This exhibition features to of my portraits, Cormac McCarthy and Prof. Murray Gell-Mann.
In Focus, Plus One Gallery, London. 16/3/11 – 9/4/11
http://www.plusonegallery.com/Shows-Detail.cfm?ShowsID=215
This show opens in a few weeks and features the figurative work of 3 artists, Philip Harris, Simon Hennessey and myself.
February 27th, 2011
I met Ray a few years ago and admired his full body tattoo from neck to ankle in a japanes style. I invited him over to my studio for the day and took a series of shots. We decided to do the whole shoot with Ray naked , which kind of made sense. Anne had been out for the morning and forgot Ray was coming over and barged into the studio with Max, our dog. Ray was in a curled up foetus position and Max went straight over to inspect Ray’s bum. Quite an entrance. It was a great shoot though, we must have done about 18 different compositions and this is the first painting that I have done from the sitting. I liked the idea that he was levitating because it was such a calm, contemplative pose and I just imagined Ray in a Zen like trance, gently rising up just a few inches off the ground.
This will be in the exhibition in London during March ( together with other new pieces and some previous work) with the excellent artists Philip Harris and Simon Hennessey.
I’ll be completing my portrait drawing of Andy Hamilton CBE very soon so I’ll post that next week.
(click on the image to enlarge)
February 19th, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpJ9G3jjxvo
I went to see C.W.Stoneking last weekend in Birmingham with Mike, my brother in law. What a great gig, he’s not too famous yet but I’ve been listening to him for the past 18 months or so and he’s great. A kind of fusion of delta blues from the 1920’s , New Orleans Jazz with a sprinkling of Tom Waits , and the strange thing is he’s Australian but it’s a great gumgo of sound.
February 19th, 2011
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