THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 29 : Venice

 

first posted in 2020..

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this is a 'figures in a souk' painting.. 

 

but it relates to venice italy..

 

there is a movie also

  don't expect a plot..it's more a painting than a regular movie..

nobody expects..

 

 

click pic to enlarge..

 

 

www.figuresinasouk.com 

AN EARTHQUAKE IN THE SOUK

 yo!.. after shock.. innit!

 

we are just as nothing..

here in this world..

everything can just fall apart..

in an instant..

in our sleep..

 an earthquake in the souk..

or a river runs through it..

and all we can do..

here in palookaville

 is watch on tv..

in horror and dread..

earthquakes and floods..

rubble and dust..

and lots of local people..

searching..

bereft..

LOS ANGELES TWO

yo!.. closer than that walter.. innit! 

So..

angelinos..

here is the missing image..

the painting with the angels..

EVERYBODY KNOWS THEY AIN'T NO SANITY CLAUSE

nobody believes in angels..

yet here they are..

not observed from life..

obviously..

but here in art..

they appear..

and reappear..

sometimes in the great paintings..

of the old masters..

(how long before that name is cancelled)

THE OLD MISTRESSES

are always the best..

and there were often angels..

with messages..

or immaculate..

concepts..

LATER THAT SAME DAY

get to the f*cking point..

I am dawdling here..

because I am awaiting..

divine inspiration..

ah that's better..

here at last..

better late than never..

evidence..

yes there are angels..

but only in art..

and only before modernism..

when you are painting..

things happen..

figures reveal themselves..

sometimes immediately..

sometimes they emerge gradually..

sometimes they appear darker..

sometimes they appear so cool..

no two angels appear the same..

sometimes they look just like ordinary joes..

like waiting for the walk sign..

walk..

 don't walk..

believe don't believe..

free will an all..

your choice..

figuresinasouk.com

city of angels

WILL WE ALWAYS HAVE PARIS ?

 yo!.. first response.. innit!

above in the middle of this picture is the centre panel of..

DEATH IN PARIS

as a painter..

living in a safe suburb..

somewhere not paris..

I had these larger canvases..

sitting around with nothing to do..

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH

the tough get painting..

so I painted this triptych..

as part of the..

'figures in a souk' series..

'will we always have paris?'..

I asked myself..

and you too I suppose..

because sometimes..

it feels that civilisation is breaking down..

you know..

civility, tolerance, community, art..

ANYWAY

this was the effect that news had on my art..

one painting, three panels..

the souk can be a dangerous place..

as well as a place to shop..

https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Will-We-Always-Have-Paris/31203/2705863/view

                       November 2015 Paris attacks

IN THE SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT

 

I used to have a big idea..

for a painting..

or for a series of paintings..

THE MAN IN THE CRIME MASTER'S MASK

was a series of three large canvases..

back in 1975..

I was still influenced by steve ditko..

and stan lee..

it was about shadows..

ventian blind shadows..

at first..

then the 3rd in the series..

was 

THE MOUNTAINS OF MOURNE

this was the shadow..

of the gun..

a child's painting on a bedroom wall..

of the mountains of mourne..

with the moonlight coming in through the window..

causing the shadow of the window frames..

to make a cross..

which falls over the child's art..

like it was the cross hairs..

in a sniper scope..

the series' were always of three paintings..

PARADISE LOST

this was about..

the loss of youth and dreams..

lost illusions..

it started with..

PUTTING ON DE STIJL

a cliff richard image..

with a drawing of an american car..

from a 'how to draw' book..

and a huge pencil drawing the car..

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

was a tarpaulin..

ripped in half..

held together by criss-crossed rope..

the universe visible through the tear..

a figure sits on a park bench to one side..

the dawn is coming up over Belfast lough..

this was a dawn after an acid trip..

a coming of age sort of thing..

anyway..

POINT PANIC

was the third in that series..

and had the silver surfer..

with his board..

and my old school tie..

a tv screen..

with the face of an aircraft carrier guy..

peering out at you..

a little boy in a camel coat..

is partly visible through another tarpaulin..

with cut outs..

I USED TO THINK BIG

but now not so much..

now I work smaller..

but on many more canvases at once..

I never know what they will become when I start them..

but they always do..

become, that is..

FIGURES IN A SOUK

did not start out as an idea..

there was no plan..

I did no research..

for images to juxtapose..

I just started splashing paint on canvas..

the large blue brush strokes just happen..

out of the blue..

nobody saw the tiger coming..

until it was already there..

KNOWING WHEN TO STOP

 yo!.. just when you think it's done.. innit!

so there I was..

thinking that this was a painting..

that was finished..

and ready to go out into the world..

SLEEP ON IT

then the next day..

or the one after..

I look again..

while eating my toast..

and it bugs me..

I hate the pale brown colour..

I hate the diagonal figure..

I hate the red square..

I hate the big pink figure..

but most of all..

I hate the yellow spot..

SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION

out come the paints..

and on goes a new coat..

that gets rid of the brown..

and the big pink figure..

and the ugly red..

and it's centre..

I REST MY CASE

still don't like it..

I have kept the shadow figures..

and feel the need for a big statement figure..

you know..

like a riding to the rescue thing..

but nothing happens..

I sit and think..

and look..

and think..

then..

I get up and approach the easel..

with a rag..

and I rub out the yellow head..

on the diagonal figure..

and sit back down..

now I am happy..

not at first maybe..

but after a time..

it becomes obvious..

this sucker is done..

or is it..

what have I done.?

figuresinasouk.com

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

TRIANGLES IN A SOUK

yo!.. heads up.. innit!

 latest paintings from the grand bazaar..

I have been busy this last while..

and thought these works worth sharing with you..

although the title of this project is..

figures in a souk..

other things happen when you paint..

here above we can see triangles..

several different triangles..

these are also figures no?

this time it's a square..

this one is hot..

in more ways than one..

school's out for this one..

although last completed this week..

the canvas was originally bought for me by my mother..

when I was just 18..

that would be 1970..

I painted a copy of a roland hilder village scene..

'ainsford kent'..

my mother and father were delighted with it and it hung on their wall for the rest of their lives..

it probably helped me get to art school..

since then I have painted over it..

the canvas is old but high quality..

this last version has developed into..

maybe what looks like like a school visit..

to the souk..

but really..

 they're all just figures in a souk..

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..

CATHEDRAL CITY

yo! .. enigma.. innit! 

this is a change from my usual..

 

figures in a souk paintings..

 

there is no square of colour..

 

you might think that..

 

I would have painted over it..

 

and I might have..

 

but for the enigmatic figure..

 

in carmine..

 

If you look at the bigger picture you may see..

 

as I do..

 

a sort of gothic windowy effect..

 

going on in the background..

 

so having lived with it for a while now..

 

I see coventry cathedral..

 

and graham sutherland..

 

and basil spence..

 

and I am reminded..

 

that rumour has it..

 

that churchill allowed..

 

the nazis to bomb coventry..

 

rather than warn the city..

 

in order to protect the secret..

 

that the allies had broken..

 

the enigma code..

 

so I appear to have created this image..

 

which appears to be..

 

figures in an apocalypse..

 

in a style that harks back to the 1950's..

 

and a city where I went to art school..

 

I have always painted figures..

 

I used to get them from comic books..

 

children's books..

 

and from drawing from life..

 

now they just appear..

 

I only set out to paint..

 

there is no plan..

 

but the figures always appear..

 

it's an enigma jim.. 

 

 

 

this one was painted at the same time..

 

I like to work on several canvases at once..

 

as you can see..

 

we are back in the souk..

 

no square of colour though..

 

but this is definitely..

 

shoppers..

 

or at least the woman is..

 

she looks rich to me..

 

maybe a princess..

 

or leader of some sort..

 

the guy is maybe security..

 

who knows..

 

anyway not so enigmatic..

 

maybe pragmatic..

 

or maybe just..

 

automatic..

 

for the people..

 

 

BECOME YOURSELF

 

 

this is a quote from graham sutherland..

 

about how to become a painter..

 

I can tell..

 

It can take a lifetime to do this..

 

and it probably will..

 

 

figuresinasouk.com 

 

 

OH YEAH..

 

and when you look at francis bacon..

 

three figures at the base of a crucifixion 

 

spare a thought for graham..