Victoria Institute, Arundel, West Sussex, UK
26 to 30 August 2021
12pm-5pm
Part of the Arundel Gallery Trail 2021, Venue 1
The European Modern Masters Family Tree Of Life, And Me, 2020, oil on linen
Using rejected paintings as a starting point, they became like collaging with paint. Working with or against what is there. What to keep and what to lose? Very often I kept the one thing that worked in the earlier painting and journeyed from there. Other times the original painting ended up totally obscured. More often than not, what was a table becomes a wall or a floor becomes a door.
Painting a postcard of a great painting is an excellent way to begin to understand how it works. The postcards I have painted are favourite works, studio friends and symbolic in some way of a person, myself, a thought or an idea. By picturing that whilst I paint the postcard it becomes a stand-in.
The words from a song by Blaze Foley are often in my head when I’m painting postcards. They seem to be appropriate to the idea of something being a stand-in for the real thing. It’s a beautiful and sad song which ends with the lines:
Win or draw no chance to lose
Picture cards can’t picture you
But I can see you like you are
If I just close my eyes
