ALAN GARNER PORTRAIT - THE TIMES 11/5/10
click on the image to enlarge
May 12th, 2010
Unveiled - Portrait of Alan Garner OBE
Here is the result of the past 4 months of work. It’s Alan sitting in what I named “The Writers Room”. He sits in this room to write all of his books and always spends most of the time sitting in his lovely old rocking chair which was his Grandmothers. It’s a great room , full of all his stuff and little narrative objects which reflect and reinforce his identity. I was particularly concious not to set anything up in this portrait. I wanted it to be absolutely natural and exactly as it was. There’s an old 80’s Hi-Fi which I really didn’t want to paint because it’s such an ugly object and I hinted at Alan to remove it ( this would have ben the only concession) - but he said there’s too much wire at the back , it’s staying , and in many ways I’m glad it did because it’s as much a part of the room as everything else. I loved painting the cauldron , beautiful sculptural shapeand the glove looks like there is somebody trying to crawl thrir way out. The landscape and local archaeology is extremely important to Alan’s books so the window was very significant. I was interested about the grid structure that archaeologists use which is similar to my roughs. I loved painting the old tiles too, they really gave the space a shape. I wanted the angles of the room to be a bit crazy because it was such an anchient old cottage that they lived in called “Toad Hall” that it was moving and subsiding all over the place. He was a great sitter for me because he had no vanity at all, an similarly to the unveiling of Tony Benn’s portrait he was only really interested in the objects and the litle stories that they held and really didn’t give a dam about his depiction. Attached to Toad Hall is an old timber framed building called “The Medicine House” which was destined for demolitian in the early 70’s but Alan saved it and had it moved timber by timber and erected next to Toad Hall. It’s got a wonderful huge chimney right in the middle and really is the obvious setting for a portrait because of the drama or th space but I found the writers room to be infinitely more interesting and apt for Alan.
For a larger view of the portrait click on the image and it should enlarge.
For more information about Alan see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Garner
Thanks to the V&A for funding this project.
May 4th, 2010
Alan Garner portrait - ( Alan’s left foot)
The unveiling of my portrait of Alan Garner will be towards the end of April. I can’t show it in full yet but here’s another little taster. I’ll post the full image on 30th April.
April 6th, 2010
SAVE BBC 6Music
It was in all of the broadsheets at the weekend and shamefully it seems that the Beeb is closing down the wonderful 6Music station. Where else can yopu listen to Captain Beefheart, Elmore James, Iggy and the Stooges and be introduced to great new music like Mumford and Sons or CSS while you’re eating your porridge at 6:30 in the morning. The station is loosely carrying on the good work carried out by John Peel. Lauren Laverns morning show is wonderful ( thankfully they gave George Lamb the elbow) and Stuart Maconie’s freek zone is unmissable.
My painting Khama is being seriously tested this year with the loss of Simon Mayo from 5Live to an uncomfortble drive time slot on Radio 2. Jonathan Ross is off and now the unforgivable news that 6Music is to be canned. This kind of specialist thing the BBC understands and does better than anyone and I can’t believe that they are going to pull the plug.
Here are some petitions:
www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consultation (this is the main one)
www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/1000/
www.facebook.com/pages/Save-6-Music/318069702319
www.facebook.com/group.php?wall&grid=278123313911
March 1st, 2010
Alan Garner - Portrait Commission - taster
Here’s a little taster of my portrait of Alan Garner. I can’t reveal it yet until the unveiling in April but it gives a litle fel for the portrait. It is a full length portrait of Alan in colour , acrylic on canvas and he is set in is wonderful room , which I call “the writers room” and he’s sitting on the chair which he sits on to write all of his books. Alan, his wife and the curator from the Grosvenor Museum in Chester came up last wek and semed to really like it. I’ve also made a video diary throughout the painting. I’ll be posyinf the finished portrait in late April.
March 1st, 2010
Ben
Here’s a recent portrait coimmission that I did of a lovely guy caled Ben. He’s been travelling around South America for the past 10 months or so and getting into a series of scrapes en route . We had the sittings before he went and I paintied the portrait while he was away. The composition is influenced by the wonderful photographer Richard Avedon who I have always admired. I wanted the weight of the composition to be to the right of the painting and he’s almost leaning on the edge of the picture.
March 1st, 2010
The New Art Gallery , Walsall - 10 years old
I went tothe “Party” exhibition at Walsall Art gallery last week to celebrate 10 years in busines. It was a fantastic turnout to silence its critics over the years. In fact looking at this photo it looks like a biblical turnout. It’s still as popular as ever and it’s a great show to celebrate called “Party”. I’ve got a small piece in from the Kitty series and there’s some great pieces by Gilbert and George, Paula Rego and a lovely one by Graham Dolphin -( I went to art college with his brother).
Here’s my wife Anne and her sister at the opening.
March 1st, 2010
Good Bye Simon Mayo
I was really sad that Simon Mayo had left Radio 5 to do the drivetime slot on Radio 2 ( Chris Evans’ old slot). I’ve listened to Simon’s weekday show almost every afternoon that I have been painting over the past 8 years and he just fits like a comfortable cardigan and slippers while I’m painting. To my mind the most professional and researched broadcaster on radio and never embarrasing. I suspct that he didn’t fancy the move to Manchester from London when Radio 5 relocates in a few years. I listened in to a few of his fill in shows for Evans and he seemed a little too “up” compared to his presentation on Five Live. I’m not sure he’s quite right for the drive time slot so please feel free to come back to Five Live wheneever you want Simon. So next time you take a look at one of my pictures from the last 8 years you might just see a little bit of Mayo in there.
December 29th, 2009