I used to have a big idea..
for a painting..
or for a series of paintings..
THE MAN IN THE CRIME MASTER'S MASK
was a series of three large canvases..
back in 1975..
I was still influenced by steve ditko..
and stan lee..
it was about shadows..
ventian blind shadows..
at first..
then the 3rd in the series..
was
THE MOUNTAINS OF MOURNE
this was the shadow..
of the gun..
a child's painting on a bedroom wall..
of the mountains of mourne..
with the moonlight coming in through the window..
causing the shadow of the window frames..
to make a cross..
which falls over the child's art..
like it was the cross hairs..
in a sniper scope..
the series' were always of three paintings..
PARADISE LOST
this was about..
the loss of youth and dreams..
lost illusions..
it started with..
PUTTING ON DE STIJL
a cliff richard image..
with a drawing of an american car..
from a 'how to draw' book..
and a huge pencil drawing the car..
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
was a tarpaulin..
ripped in half..
held together by criss-crossed rope..
the universe visible through the tear..
a figure sits on a park bench to one side..
the dawn is coming up over Belfast lough..
this was a dawn after an acid trip..
a coming of age sort of thing..
anyway..
POINT PANIC
was the third in that series..
and had the silver surfer..
with his board..
and my old school tie..
a tv screen..
with the face of an aircraft carrier guy..
peering out at you..
a little boy in a camel coat..
is partly visible through another tarpaulin..
with cut outs..
I USED TO THINK BIG
but now not so much..
now I work smaller..
but on many more canvases at once..
I never know what they will become when I start them..
but they always do..
become, that is..
FIGURES IN A SOUK
did not start out as an idea..
there was no plan..
I did no research..
for images to juxtapose..
I just started splashing paint on canvas..
the large blue brush strokes just happen..
out of the blue..
nobody saw the tiger coming..
until it was already there..
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