THE ARTIST IN HIS GARDEN

yo! .. how do yo gardin grow..innit! 

 

 

IN THE GARDEN WITH MONET

 

 here I am..

 

sitting in the garden

 

just like monet..

 

no lily pond though..

 

but then no sound of rolling artillery fire..

 

only 20 miles away..

 

 

us artists..

 

we like our gardens..

 

we don't have to paint them..

 

we can just sit in the shade..

 

cut the grass..

 

admire the planting..

 

 

 

 

IN THE GARDEN WITH MARK 

If you paint a rectangle..

with a feathered edge..

 

and especially if you paint two..

 

one above the other..

 

within a portrait aspect canvas..

 

pretty soon you will be talking with mark..

 

so mark is here with me in my garden..

 

and it is all the better for that.. 

 

 

 

 IN THE GARDEN WITH JACKSON

 

yeah..

 

I know what you're thinking..

 

but I like pollock..

 

and I like poppies..

 

and yellow..

 

and it's my garden..

so..

monet, france, poppies..

pretty soon we'll be back at the front..

 

LETS NOT GO THERE

 

let there be light..

and life and flowers..

this is springtime..

after all..

CATHEDRAL CITY

yo! .. enigma.. innit! 

this is a change from my usual..

 

figures in a souk paintings..

 

there is no square of colour..

 

you might think that..

 

I would have painted over it..

 

and I might have..

 

but for the enigmatic figure..

 

in carmine..

 

If you look at the bigger picture you may see..

 

as I do..

 

a sort of gothic windowy effect..

 

going on in the background..

 

so having lived with it for a while now..

 

I see coventry cathedral..

 

and graham sutherland..

 

and basil spence..

 

and I am reminded..

 

that rumour has it..

 

that churchill allowed..

 

the nazis to bomb coventry..

 

rather than warn the city..

 

in order to protect the secret..

 

that the allies had broken..

 

the enigma code..

 

so I appear to have created this image..

 

which appears to be..

 

figures in an apocalypse..

 

in a style that harks back to the 1950's..

 

and a city where I went to art school..

 

I have always painted figures..

 

I used to get them from comic books..

 

children's books..

 

and from drawing from life..

 

now they just appear..

 

I only set out to paint..

 

there is no plan..

 

but the figures always appear..

 

it's an enigma jim.. 

 

 

 

this one was painted at the same time..

 

I like to work on several canvases at once..

 

as you can see..

 

we are back in the souk..

 

no square of colour though..

 

but this is definitely..

 

shoppers..

 

or at least the woman is..

 

she looks rich to me..

 

maybe a princess..

 

or leader of some sort..

 

the guy is maybe security..

 

who knows..

 

anyway not so enigmatic..

 

maybe pragmatic..

 

or maybe just..

 

automatic..

 

for the people..

 

 

BECOME YOURSELF

 

 

this is a quote from graham sutherland..

 

about how to become a painter..

 

I can tell..

 

It can take a lifetime to do this..

 

and it probably will..

 

 

figuresinasouk.com 

 

 

OH YEAH..

 

and when you look at francis bacon..

 

three figures at the base of a crucifixion 

 

spare a thought for graham..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Artist In His Studio

sitting here in my studio.. 

19th may 2012.. 

you can't see me because I am.. 

taking this picture.. 

 shooting this shot..

 

LIKE MONET

 

 sitting in his garden.. 

 in giverney.. while 20 miles away.. 

 the guns are smashing the.. 

trenches to mud.. 

he can't feel a thing.. 

 here in palookaville.. 

 the war in ukrain is further away.. 

and we can still sit here in peace.. 

for now anyway.. 

 

 THE GLASS IS FALLING HOUR BY HOUR 

the glass will fall forever.. 

but if you break the bloody glass.. 

you won't hold up the weather.. 

 

 

 

so here is this blog..

 

being written..

 

the large canvas is from..

 

1994

 

you can live a long time in hollywood..

 

and never see the part they put in movies..

WE ARE ALONE ALL TOGETHER

all together..

we are alone..

DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS

 

 

there is a painting..

 

in nottingham castle..

 

by george moreland..

 

it used to have the title..

 

'the artist in his studio, his man gibbs frying up'.. 

they have shortened it now..

it was always a favourite of mine..

 

 

 

IN COMMON BUT ALONE

 

 

Chingachgook became once more the object of the common attention. 

He had not yet spoken, and something consolatory and instructive was expected from so renowned a chief on an occasion of such interest...

"Why do my brothers mourn?" he said, regarding the dark race of dejected warriors by whom he was environed; "why do my daughters weep? that a young man has gone to the happy hunting-grounds; that a chief has filled his time with honor? 

He was good; he was dutiful; he was brave. 

Who can deny it? 

The Manitou had need of such a warrior, and He has called him away. 

As for me, the son and the father of Uncas, 

I am a blazed pine, in a clearing of the pale faces. 

My race has gone from the shores of the salt lake and the hills of the Delawares. 

But who can say that the serpent of his tribe has forgotten his wisdom? I am alone--"

"No, no," cried Hawkeye, who had been gazing with a yearning look at the rigid features of his friend, with something like his own self-command, but whose philosophy could endure no longer; "no, Sagamore, not alone. 

The gifts of our colors may be different, but God has so placed us as to journey in the same path. I have no kin, and I may also say, like you, no people. He was your son, and a red-skin by nature; and it may be that your blood was nearer--but, if ever I forget the lad who has so often fou't at my side in war, and slept at my side in peace, may He who made us all, whatever may be our color or our gifts, forget me!

 The boy has left us for a time; but, Sagamore, you are not alone."

Chingachgook grasped the hand that, in the warmth of feeling, the scout had stretched across the fresh earth, and in an attitude of friendship these two sturdy and intrepid woodsmen bowed their heads together, while scalding tears fell to their feet, watering the grave of Uncas like drops of falling rain.

In the midst of the awful stillness with which such a burst of feeling, coming as it did, from the two most renowned warriors of that region, was received, Tamenund lifted his voice to disperse the multitude.

"It is enough," he said.

 "Go, children of the Lenape, 

the anger of the Manitou is not done. 

Why should Tamenund stay? 

The pale faces are masters of the earth, 

and the time of the red men has not yet come again. 

My day has been too long. 

In the morning I saw the sons of Unamis happy and strong; 

and yet, 

before the night has come, 

have I lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans."

 

https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Native-american-Figure/31203/1246684/view

 

IN VINCENT'S CHAIR

so we beat on..

boats against the current..

borne back ceaselessly..

into the past.. 

figuresinasouk.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STUDIO INTERNATIONAL

yo!.. painting is dead.. innit!

I read in 1969..

in a magazine called..

studio international..

that painting was dead..

it was a set back..

for sure..

I was 17..

and painting was what I was doing..

at the latest John Moores painting prize..

there had been a lot of blank canvases..

it was disappointing..

because I love to see paintings..

I like to look close up..

to see the marks..

the surface of the canvas..

I love the colours..

I really do enjoy looking at paintings..

In our local gallery of contemporary art..

there are very rarely any paintings shown..

the folks there prefer to show 'art'

international contemporary art..

it's a thing..

somewhere along the way..

all these clever folks..

have hijacked art for themselves..

and their friends..

and now they call all the shots..

so to go see paintings..

it's not so easy these days..

it's a good thing that  painting is dead..

because damian hirst said that..

death is the greatest idea in art..

death is the big idea..

and Damien thinks big..

the bigger the better..

me..

I'll just keep on painting..

It's what I do..

A lot of my favourite painters..

are dead also..

I still speak with them..

it's what we do when we paint..

painting is a dialogue..

If you see me talking with mark here..

you are here with us..

 in the souk..

www.figuresinasouk.com