Revolutions

For the last couple of months I have been listening to the brilliant "Revolutions" podcasts, by Mike Duncan. You can find out more on his website here. The story of the French revolution is so much more complicated than I ever learned at school, and he tells the story so well over 55 half-hour podcasts. Just amazing. So bloody. So bloody amazing. It's depressing that something that was originally so well-intentioned, so (I guess) noble, deteriorated into a blood-soaked orgy of power-seeking. This bloody revolution shaped the country I live in, and have lived in now for nearly nine years. The French are proud of their revolutionary heritage - and how they feel that it's the people of France who have shaped the country for last couple of hundred years or so. But so many people were killed, and so many men tried to use the situation for their own ends - to advance and increase their power. And so many of them died, were executed, guillotined or in pointless civil war. So here's my newest painting. It was going to be called "Bread and the Constitution of 1793", but the painting changed, and turned instead into a reflection of the bloodiness of it all. So here it is, simply called "Revolution".

Revolution - Mixed Media on Canvas, 91x71cm