A r c h i v e
Stories, weird events, mystical places, alienation and confusion.
A recurring theme in my work has been masculinity and the widely various ways it's defined. I was a boy. I became a man but I've not really felt sure that I was doing it properly, (every so often somebody will reassure me that this is true.). This may perhaps not be the most worthy subject to approach though the serious business of Art but as an artist you must make your own path. A bit like a character from a comedy film, any outcome as an artist has been arrived at through a comedic catalogue of well intentioned error, random occurrences and a ridiculous amount of persistence.
In this section of my website you'll see men and boys as heroes and villains, foolish and wise, cowboys, cops, criminals, pantomime horses etc etc. We (men) spend our lives playing our roles or the roles that others assign to us. I'm interested in the guises we use to cloak ourselves to present ourselves to the world. I'd like to think of this body of work as a set of out-takes from the times I've lived in and to me the pictures are like old TV from a past era.
I haven't set out as an artist to address the profundities of existence, I'm just trying to make sense of what's going on. If I caught some of the of confusion, the fear, the humour and hopefully the sense of wonder that goes with having a life that will do for me.
This first section of the archive is a selection of just over fifty paintings dating back as far as 1978.
The work isn't ordered in a strict timeline but I've divided it up into sections which should, hopefully giving some indication of how things have developed over the decades.
The second and third pages of this archive shows work using painted film. This work has now been digitised so I'll be able to make some prints available at last.
1978 one of the first drawings using the idea of cut-out images as the basis for a drawing. Images looking at images of images!
The Hollywood version of history. A painting based on a montage of images cut from Vanity Fair Magazine. Custer is based on Errol Flynn. That high horizon line is borrowed from David Lean. I was always very impressed by Sydney Nolan's re-writing of history through art. 4ftx6ft
1978 one of the first drawings using the idea of cut-out images as the basis for a drawing. Images looking at images of images!
Pre 1980
Studying painting at Leicester Polytechnic 1977-1980, I liked the idea of working with film but the (super 8) process then was tediously slow and expensive.
I started using
re-drawn cut-out images to create a narrative montage on a bigger canvas. I've put the first two of these "epic" paintings (Custer's Last Beach Party, and The Venus of Rod's Sandwich Bar).in this section.
1979. The BNP were marching. There's no one as incapable of reason as a self-righteous bigot. We were Rocking against Racism, possibly not for the last time I fear. 4ftx6ft
Apparently I am distantly related to H M Stanley. I was horrified to find out that he had started his exploration to find Livingstone in the company of a slave trader called Tippu Tibb. This is a painting about "whitening" Africa and how we tend to destroy that which we seek to improve. 4ftx6ft
The spirits of nature are lost in a shopping street. Only one man can see them. He is ignored or regarded as crazy by the passers-by. 4ftx6ft
1979. The BNP were marching. There's no one as incapable of reason as a self-righteous bigot. We were Rocking against Racism, possibly not for the last time I fear. 4ftx6ft
Epic Paintings
These paintings have been produced over a period of over thirty years. Every now and then I feel like doing something big and filmic. This is as close as I've got, so far.
4ftx3ft
Waiting for enlightenment the Holy Fool's life has passed him by and he has become bitter. 4ftx4ft.
Two men consider the reality of their lives. 3ftx2.5ft
4ftx3ft
A lot of my images are about being male,
delusion and disillusion. We think we're a fine stallion but we are a pantomime horse, a Holy fool. That feeling of being frightened boy with a man's body.
Based on one of those scary children's book illustrations that haunt you forever. A figure from a game of Happy Families becomes a razor wielding criminal hiding in your shed.
I heard someone talking about letting in the light and thought what if.....
A work still in progress. A painting about the lovely world of the art gallery. 3ftx4ft.
Based on one of those scary children's book illustrations that haunt you forever. A figure from a game of Happy Families becomes a razor wielding criminal hiding in your shed.
Narrative Work on Paper
During the 1990s I started using more water based paints, initially watercolours then acrylics. This required me to take a new approach to applying paint. It was difficult, it took years but led ultimately to a looser style and I love the unnatural colours.
Heads
Experimenting with watercolour (in this group of paintings), it's possible to throw some paint around and find the face in the random marks. Working in this way you can find yourself doing things with colour and texture that you'd never try if you planned it. Humans are pretty much pre-programmed to see faces wherever they can make them out (paredoilia) ;-) .
