THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 4

 A young fella.. 18 just.. 

He is sitting on a park bench in Bangor, County Down.

It is dawn and the sun is rising on the rest of his life.

A rabbit sits nearby as they often will in the early hours.

It seems like the Garden of Eden.

or is it the Garden of Gethsemani?

He has been staying with friends ten years older than himself.

They are Hippy-ish veterans of early LSD and jaunts in Canada and Mexico.

He is really only here because his girl friend has gone home to parents in Jamaica for the summer holiday.

We view him from behind his back so that we can see the vista..

You might think of Casper David Friedrich.. 

"the celebrated German Romantic painter who is best known for Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer, or The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. Painted in 1818, it is an image that evokes the full repertoire of themes we associate with European Romanticism: loneliness, sublimity, and the transformative encounter with spiritualised nature. It shows an unknown man whose back is to the viewer – a Rückenfigur, or figure from behind – a posture that draws us into the landscape that is spread out before him. Poised upon a rocky precipice, the Wanderer gazes down into a chaotic landscape of tempestuous clouds – a sea of fog that is pierced by jagged rocks."

Our guy today is dressed in his Civil Defence greatcoat that he got fro the army surplus store. He has long hair and flared trousers because this is 1970.

He looks out on a fractured dawn skyline as if the world is coming apart at the seams. The painting is on a tarpaulin which is stretched across another canvas painted with the universe or the stars at night. The tarpaulin is coming apart and is held together only by string. The seam where the tarpaulin is stitched together dissects the cavas diagonally. Reinforcing the idea of stress. The young fella has had an interesting night and all his certainties have gone awry.

Whilst the events depicted happened overlooking Belfast loch we see instead a fractured 

Mountains of Mourne.

The Artist In Residence is coming of age.

His world has fallen apart and must be remade..

The painting is called 

'All You Need is love'

because love is all you need..

isn't it?

and because he and his friends sang that song from the trailer pulled along behind a tractor whilst on an adventure to collect and bring back turf for the fire at the farm near Ballycastle.

KITCHEN SINK REDEMPTION

yo! .. portrait of god.. innit!

 

long ago when I was a young boy..

I came home one evening..

from playing out in the snow..

in the winter darkness..

I was freezing cold and soaking wet..

my knees were black..

from the dye of the cheap black jeans I had on..

my mother sat me on the draining board..

in the kitchen..

and bathed me in the kitchen sink..

I thought of this much later in my studio..

at the general hospital..

in 1984..

I thought of painting a portrait of god..

I was younger then..

anyway..

I look at this painting now..

(above is not the finished painting)

or at least a jpg of it..

and what I see now is not a deity..

but a pope..

a figure at the base of a crucifixion..

a screaming pope..

WHERE'S THE SCREAM ?

well look at the face of this teddy bear..

not all screams are alike..

this one is more like a smile..

or a look..

it's a sunburst..

a grind..

a smirk and a chaos..

it's not an ever fixed mark..

it 's a moveable feast..

a great notion..

it's an anomaly a gap in time..

warped space..

I had used all the colours that I had available..

to make this odd..

unnatural..

cosmic..

different..

it's an ecstacy in paint..

NOBODY EXPECTS A HANGING

this painting was bought by Leeds schools art loan scheme in 1986.. 

and was on my page at artUK..

but that scheme has closed and the painting..

is awaiting adoption by the Leeds city art collection..

this has been going on for some years now..

so I sit here in the sink..

in the cold kitchen..

here in palookaville..

and it's beginning to feel like..

an eternity..

MY MASTERPIECE

 

                                                      yo!.. blue remembered hills.. innit!

long ago..

and so very far away..

I painted this picture..

at the time..

I was artist-in residence..

at the general hospital..

in palookaville..

I had this great big studio..

a whole nightingale ward..

to myself..

I had all the oil paints, turps, brushes and canvases..

I could ever wish for..

I had a small grant..

and a free lunch..

THE RICHEST MAN ALIVE

for who could ask for more..

anyway..

before I started painting the USAAF decals..

I painted the first image at the top of this post..

WATCH WITH MOTHER

it was 1984..

and 9/11..

was way in the future..

I was using figures from children's illustrated story books..

it was a thing for me then..

I had this sketch..

in my book..

that had rupert the bear..

crucified upside down..

to his little airplane from one of the rupert stories..

that would be the airplane not the crucifixion..

micky mouse was looking in through the window from outside the house..

that this was happening in..

so..

 given that I had the means, motive and opportunity..

I figured that I may as well..

go large..

so many litres of white spirit later..

after some great struggle..

this canvas was born..

a star..

so here we have the the resulting masterpiece..

but..

sometime during eternity..

rupert the bear..

has gone blackface..

he still has his red jumper and plaid yellow trousers..

so we can identify him clearly..

so why has his face gone black?

well sometime during the painting process..

I was in the zone..

having to spin the 8 ft x 5 ft..

canvas around over my head..

to get the soaking wet canvas with all of it's white spirit..

(turpentine)

to drain off in the desired direction..

I was in a painting frenzy..

it was great fun..

if a little tiring..

sometime during this creative fog of war..

rupert's face went black..

not premeditated m' lord..

but never the less..

OUT OF THE TOY BOX

the figures on the left of the painting..

are a jolly bunch of middle class pals..

called tiger tim and friends..

they are in shock and awe..

at the sight of the innocent rupert..

in such a fix..

IS THIS A LYNCHING ?

well after watching the george floyd killing on the news..

it may seem that way..

IS THIS 9/11

that would make the painting..

prescient..

spooky no?..

MEDIUM COOL

well..

I guess the answers lie in the news..

all of the filmed and videoed..

violence and tragedy..

endlessly watched by us all..

our faces reflecting horror..

and dismay..

but watch we still do..

in sharing this with you today..

it occurs to me that some may be offended..

by the black face of rupert..

and say it is somehow..

a racist work..

that, I believe, would be a mistake..

this is a powerful work of art..

but it cannot be seen by anyone at this time..

and so cannot be debated..

as it is held in the store room..

of a UK city..

who bought the painting long ago..

but will not adopt it into their public collection..

for whatever reason..

 I do not know..