the fruit machine stops..
it's 1984..
the artist is in his studio..
he has been using illustrations from children's books..
as the figures in his paintings..
the quatrefoil window..
has come into his work in a big way..
he has, he thinks..
created a logo for God..
well..
it is a pictogram anyway..
he has combined the quatrefoil with a landscape..
like a view out the window..
it's a simplified view of a promised land..
or are they blue remembers hills?.
anyway..
he sees it as a vision of paradise..
a promised landscape..
and what is religion if not a promise?
life after life..
the canvas is stained..
much thinned oil paint has seeped through..
from the other side..
yes this is a second chance work..
the failed reverse is hidden away..
and a new version has been produced..
the colours have bled through the canvas..
and survived..
to tell of a fresh start..
rather then a virgin birth..
LIFE IS A GAMBLE
this canvas is only the first panel of a triptych..
the idea is of the wheels of a gambling machine..
a 'one armed bandit'..
where gamblers try to pull hard enough on the 'arm'..
to win..
or at least get their money back..
the idea of the three canvases..
is that each one has a version of the pictogram..
and that as they have settled down as a complete line..
all three in a row..
there should be a pay out..
a reward..
or a debt to pay..
the staining of the canvas..
reminds us of Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis..
anyway lots of fun with paint..
almost no-one in the world has ever seen this painting..
it has never been exhibited..
maybe it's because it's no good..
or maybe it's just..
bad luck..
maybe it's the wrong colours..
or maybe it's because..
there are too many notes..
but maybe it's just because..
nobody likes the odds..
the house rules..
consequences..
loss..
