FIGURES IN A TOMB

 yo!.. knowin when ta stop.. innit!

I was watching this tv documentary..

about ancient Egypt..

and the professor was inside a pyramid..

a big-un I bet..

anyway..

there she was sitting the floor..

in front of the sarcophagus..

and I was struck..

at how much this was like..

she was sitting in the Tate..

in the Rothko room..

all those Rothko chapels..

are just like the inside of the great pyramids..

SOME TIME DURING ETERNITY

some guy shows up..

and starts telling all the gang..

that he is a god..

same old story..

all love and glory..

it's a pantomime..

MEANWHILE

back in the pyramid..

demon hurst..

aka citizen Kane..

says that..

the biggest idea in art..

is death..

FIGURES IN A SOUK

is an ongoing series of paintings..

even though painting has been dead since 1968..

in which I conjure figures..

from oil paint and canvas..

and having created this stuff..

after viewing..

rothko, turner and rembrandt..

I realise that it's..

richard parkes bonnington..

and his painting..

quentin durward at liege..

that informs the work best..

but the view from the tomb..

 keeps peeping out..

SCOTT-FITZGERALD

so we beat on..

boats against the currant..

borne back ceaselessly..

in to the tomb..

figuresinasouk.com

Quentin Durward at Liège

Quentin Durward at Liège

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