TRAVEL IN HOPE

 yo!.. raining in ma heart... innit!

HOPE 

here in palookaville..

we are sitting in out of the rain..

and it feels good to me..

we had a lot of sunny days..

but now the rain feels fresh..

and a change is..

as good as a rest..

innit..?

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW IS A TREE

 sharing this view with you..

 15. 29. gmt.. today..

listening to carrickfergus..

soon the hibiscus will be in bloom..

 

THE FIRST LAW OF BUBBLES

when you find yourself in one....

STOP BLOWING.. 

 

  

here in palookaville..

all bets are off..

 

WAITING FOR THE MAN 

rumour has it that..

the stock market will crash again..

some day soon..

and one day the rumour may be true..

but fucked if we know when..

THE MAN WHO FIXED THE WORLD SERIES

has fixed the news..

has fixed the market..

has fixed inflation..

has fixed the plunge..

has fixed the rates,

has fixed the junk,

 

ALL THE ASSET LESSONS

 

have been prepared..

but not learned..

a false sense of securities..

is the only sense in town..

 

STRIKING IT RICH

 

here in palookaville..

we are short..

but we are not happy..

we long to be long..

 

we long to belong..

 

but we are short..

man we was lonely..

could have been rich..

at least on paper..

could have used that paper to buy stuff..

 

CAUGHT SHORT

read the disclaimer.. 

this is not advice..

advice is cheap..

but seldom timely..

 

COME THE DAY

 when securities..

are fully insecure..

we may well be long..

and yet still be wrong..

 

PETEY SAYS

jus my own opinions..

an all fo fun.. innit!

y'all be careful out there..

https://realinvestmentadvice.com/technically-speaking-if-everyone-sees-it-is-it-still-a-bubble/ 

 

 

 

 

IT'S THAT GUN MAN AGAIN

 meet mr cut-out gun..

he is not a lot of fun..

but he's only just begun..

and he ain't just out to stun..

do you wonder..

that he will..

shoot to wound..

or make the kill..

either way..

it's not your day..

because he's here to stay..

oh please mr candidate..

please make him go away..

THE JOURNEY TO THE SOUL OF THE SOUK

 imagined Morocco..

imagined light..

imagined people..

imagine what's going on.. 

imagine the rage..

imagine the bargains.. 

imagine the guile..

imagine the plans..

the plots..

the gains and the losses..

the employed..

and the bosses..

the good and the bad..

old and the young..

winners and losers..

religions and stuff..

everything for sale..

and where..

anything goes..

seek and you'll find..

is it all in the mind..

the pleasure..

and the pain..

have you seen the soul babe..

hiding in the shadows..

figuresinasouk.com   

JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF THE SOUK

at first I thought it was washday..

in Marrakesh..

later I would change my mind..

they call this one the red door..

this one they just call..

the heart..

figuresinasouk.com                                                              

 

 

 

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE SOUK

three canvases from 2014..

and the new style is developing..

with the square..

and then the figures..

 

 

 

everything is still fluid..

 

 

things were just coming together..

 

 

soft focus and gestural..

 

figures in a souk..

 

oil on canvas 30x20 inches..

 

figuresinasouk.com

TERRACOTTA WARRIORS

 

oil paint and gouache on arches paper..

drawn in the 'survivors' style..

 

if only all armies were all made of only terracotta..

instead of..

scorched earth..

and airplanes built with paper wings..

and drones and missiles..

were only kites..

to decorate the days..

and sleep on the wind..

 peaceful nights..

 

if only men..

and women too..

could make only love..

and never war..

or if they must..

create a proof that they once were.. 

make terracotta armies..

to bury in the ground..

to guard the peace..

without a sound..

 

BRING BACK MY GLEN-BOTT TO ME

    so it's 1980..

             

graduated in 1975..

into a big recession..

but up and running as a graphic designer in 1980..

when guess what..

yep another recession..

we got a16% pay rise one minute..

due to inflation and 15% mortgage rates..

so my lovely job just upped and died..

anyway..

here in palookaville..

when the going gets tough..

the tough start a new canvas..

IT'S THAT SPIDER-MAN AGAIN

the central figure is from spider-man 27..

'bring back my goblin to me'

just love that ditko artwork..

the scene is a recreation of my old school..

margaret glen-bott..

note the uniform and tie..

the radiator and the see-through panel in the door..

my style at the time had all these diagonal gestural marks..

the large diamond shapes were something I just wanted in there..

I guess that is me..

self portrait..

eat your heart out rembrandt..

school is tough right..

coming of age in wollaton park..

(pronounced woolaton)..

even when I had the job..

I was longing to be back in school..

talk about ambitious..

REJECTED FROM THE JOHN MOORES

like so many of my other master works..

this too was refused by the judges..

I took it all the way to Liverpool..

on the train..

60 inches high and 96 inches wide..

I had to sit in the guards van with the other parcels..

John lennon was not there to greet me..

but could only wave goodbye..

I was 16 when I first entered..

the Liverpool exhibition..

I believed I would win first prize..

16 will do that for you..

THE MADONNA DE MILO

 

flipping through an old 1950's magazine..

I came across this advert for a milky bedtime drink..

Milo..

mother and very healthy child..

one of the great images of western art..

great art as pop art..

madonna and child..

on the tv..

selling stuff..

guess all the kids these days think..

that's not madonna..

and anyway..

which kid is that supposed ta be anyway..?

tv's were smaller then..

and funny shaped..

'the madonna de milo'..

 is a limited edition screen print on arches paper..

1986..

edition of 25

VARIATIONS ON A SCREAM

 

 

following on from yesterday..

more variations..

 

 

 

click on any image to enlarge..

for another movie click here

THE SCREAM

this is my take on 'the scream' by edvard munch.. and this limited edition print was created in 1980..

 

it has two sheets of arches hand made paper..

 

top sheet printed on both sides.

 

with the 1950's ad for vim..

 

the second sheet underneath..

 

is from psycho..

 

ICONOCLASM

click on any image to enlarge

 

so this is janet leigh on the shower floor.. 

 

 

 

in 'psycho' by alfred hitchcock.. 

 

 

I had a screen made from the still..

 

 

and worked on the screen prints with inks and..

 

 

 paint stripper..

 

 

 

and then worked on the reverse side..

 

 

cut out flaps and folded them over..

 

 

 

there is more to see of course..

 

and more to tell..

 

 FORTY YEARS ON

 

 see my movie of this..

50 YEARS ON

FOUNDATION 1971-2

 

 

 

steve willets..

 

told us at our first fine art seminar..

 

that painting was dead..

 

and that the thing we should be looking at was..

 

 

CONTROL  

 

 

which was his thing at the time..

 

and he had a magazine that he published under that name..

 

I listened to what he was saying..

 

stuff about cybernetics and message boards..

 

information exchange..

 

I think now he was into an internet kind of idea..

 

but had not a clue of what it was..

 

or how I could use it..

so after a while I tuned out..

and went to do some screen printing..

 

BRUCE DAVIDSON

 

 

I was taken with an image of Bruce's..

 

from his 'east 100th st'

 

it was the little girl..

 

behind the net curtain..

 

at home alone?

 

in a slum tenement..

 

in harlem..

 

new york..

 

I had a haltone screen made of this image..

 

and proceeded to make screen prints of it..

 

someone had spilled filler..

 

over my screen..

 

but I printed it anyway..

 

on both sides of the paper..

 

then cut shapes..

 

and folded back the flaps..

 

overprinted them..

 

some folded over, some not.. 

I shot these with my old zenith B..

3.5 lens..

just thought I would share them with you..

 

today..

50 years on

see my movie here

RED SQUARE

 

AND THEN THE SETTING SUN

yo!.. surf's up...innit!

 

 

so carrying on from yesterday..

I was swimmin inna sea of oil paint..

big brush in hand..

an what did I sea..

a sundown moment in the history of art..

thought I would share this with you..

 

OIL AND WATER

yo!.. ocean view ...innit! 

 

 

sometimes when you are painting..

there has to be a change of plan..

and what you thought you were painting..

is not going to happen any more..

because something else has occurred to you..

 

 

A LITTLE MORE PACIFIC IF YOU PLEASE 

the ocean has made it's appearance..

complete with swimmer and sail boat/windsurfer..

the carpet from the souk..

has become the sun..

you have to pause..

and look carefully..

and before you know it..

you are unemployed..

there is nothing more you can do..

the ocean has trumped the souk..

all you can do is look and learn..

 

 

ON THE BEACH WITH EUGENE BOUDIN

 

mr turner and mister rothko..

are on the beach..

abstract impressionists..

take a bow..

TRIPTYCH

THREE FIGURES

 

FIGURES IN A SOUK

is really all just the one painting..

each is part of a whole..

one work of art..

one painting in a hundred parts..

some are lighter and some are darker..

but they are all one work..

best seen together..

 

it's context..

 

innit!

 

ALL ONE PAINTING

 yo!.. heart onna sleeve... innit! 

 

 

here in palookaville..

there is the studio..

an everything else..

all the bollox is out there..

inna media, onna telly..

only in palookaville can one person remain..

an artist, a painter and a believer..

we try to be sincere and stay sane..

it's not easy..

but we try..

IN THE SOUK THERE ARE MANY PAINTINGS

it occurs to me today as I sit..

with banana and wholemeal sourdough toast, coffee..

that the many canvases that make up..

FIGURES IN A SOUK

are really all just the one painting..

each is part of a whole..

one work of art..

one painting in a hundred parts..

some are lighter and some are darker..

but they are all one work..

who knows this may be my mature style..

magnum opus..

whatever..

 

THAT GREAT DAY HAS GONE

 yo!.. nostalgic... innit!

on a cold but fresh first day back at school..

in january 1966..

the fresh snow lay melting in the road..

as docile and bruin and I..

took the number 39 bus from middleton boulevard..

to denman street in radford, nottingham..

it was during the long school lunch break that we set off..

to find rare old marvel comics..

in the junk shops there..

the old shop keeper had a pile of old american comics in the window..

and we would divide it up and rifle through..

to be the first to find a rare comic..

I found the incredible hulk no.6 that day..

cover by stevie ditto..

price 3 old pennies..

after that we went into the old man and woman's chip shop..

and bought fish, chips and peas for one shilling and sixpence..

the day was cold but the snow was white..

the air was pure and clear..

I was 13 years old..

we had no money then..

but we were wealthy..

OH YEAH !