THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 16 : IN CAMERA

 inside a black room..

in the local contemporary art gallery..

the artist waits behind a closed door..

he has his Sony RX100 pointing at the blackness..

the door opens..

and our boy shoots..

this is what he thinks photography is..

the unexpected..

the happy accident..

the lucky break..

chance meeting..

like Kandinsky..

seeing his painting upside down..

in the moonlight..

abstract.. 

innit!

THE ARTIST IN HIS GARDEN

yo! .. how do yo gardin grow..innit! 

 

 

IN THE GARDEN WITH MONET

 

 here I am..

 

sitting in the garden

 

just like monet..

 

no lily pond though..

 

but then no sound of rolling artillery fire..

 

only 20 miles away..

 

 

us artists..

 

we like our gardens..

 

we don't have to paint them..

 

we can just sit in the shade..

 

cut the grass..

 

admire the planting..

 

 

 

 

IN THE GARDEN WITH MARK 

If you paint a rectangle..

with a feathered edge..

 

and especially if you paint two..

 

one above the other..

 

within a portrait aspect canvas..

 

pretty soon you will be talking with mark..

 

so mark is here with me in my garden..

 

and it is all the better for that.. 

 

 

 

 IN THE GARDEN WITH JACKSON

 

yeah..

 

I know what you're thinking..

 

but I like pollock..

 

and I like poppies..

 

and yellow..

 

and it's my garden..

so..

monet, france, poppies..

pretty soon we'll be back at the front..

 

LETS NOT GO THERE

 

let there be light..

and life and flowers..

this is springtime..

after all..

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