THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 17 : A BOOMER'S PAINTING

yo!

here we are in the artist's studio..

what a mess..

well it's a grey January day..

and the studio is cold and unused..

THE LANDSCAPE THAT WAS

this canvas was started in 1984..

and was part of a series about Idealised Landscape..

an American USAAF decal from WWII..

with a quatrefoil in the centre of the star..

a promised land..

this image was his thing for a while..

this was the first one in 1985..

a nice dove of peace vibe happening here..

Lavender Mist..

probably the artist's favourite..

Jackson would have approved..

military vibe here..

you may notice how the colours of the rectangles..

either side of the star are different from each other..

the idea was mood and balance..

a balance of power..

A BALANCE THAT WAS

so 70 years of Pax Americana..

gone like snow on the water..

next time on..

THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

painting over paradise..

the fool on the hill..

the future that was..

MY AMERICAN DREAM

 yo!.. Whitney museum come get me.. innit!

long ago and so very far away..

in a studio that had previously been a hospital ward..

some guy shows up..

an starts ta paint his socks off..

ENOLA GAY

I had stopped painting with images from children's books..

and had come up with a pictogram..

which I thought of as a logo for god..

it was a landscape..

an idealised landscape but simplified..

like a children's idea of hills..

this was all inside a quatrefoil..

a window onto a promised land..

a land of peace and plenty..

well..

so I told in my post..

war is peace

I started marrying up the heaven image with the ultra-famous..

USAAF DECAL

I wonder how andy missed this..

anyway..

as you can see here..

I was painting these large canvases two at a time..

and the one that survives (top)..

is the one on the left..

so it is in a hot studio..

with lots of oil paint and thinner..

floating in the air..

that I entered my own little (war) zone..

white paint exploded everywhere..

as my brushes flew crazy wild..

and then I drew the quatrefoil in red..

and added the green hills..

all the paint was wet..

and if you click on the image you can see it lifting off the wet white..

I threw the dot from some way away..

it landed where it landed..

not aimed but a lucky shot..

can you see the dove?.

    DOVE OF PEACE

in a world of war..

I grew up in england..

in the burbs..

of palookaville..

and became american..

by watching tv..

WAR OR WESTERNS

that's what we watched in the 50's..

I had a cowboy outfit and a bow and arrow..

I had a davy crocket hat and a burp gun..

but the image that stuck in mt head and heart..

was the one on the wings of enola gay..

and during vietnam..

while I grew through my teens..

this decal was on all the news shows..

and in all the papers and magazines..

AN AMERICAN PAINTING

war and peace..

power and glory..

yin and yang..

with a bang..

AMERICAN ART 1985 - 2014