Sunday, 28 August 2016

New stuff

So I've got some new stuff to show off. Some things I have been working on for a while and gone back to time and time again until I'm happy enough to put them to one side and say "finished" - or "finished enough so I'm not going to fiddle with them any more". Three paintings that have little in common, but here they are - in no particular order:

Luca Brassi he sleeps with the fishes
60cm x 60cm mixed media on canvas

"Luca Brassi he sleeps with the fishes" is an abstract picture, I guess inspired by a combination of things: the fact I'm in or working with water all the time, my normal habit of listening to music - Catatonia if you don't know ("I am the mob") plus, obviously, The Godfather. A pretty good combination of things I think.

Pyrenees
115cm x 163cm, Mixed Media on Canvas
For one reason or another I have spent a lot of time in and around the Pyrenees this summer. Also, we can see them on clear days from our house. Although what we normally see is "The Canigou", this isn't it! It;'s weird looking at the little digital reproduction above - which I think looks like a small drawing on paper - whilst just a metre behind me sits the monster-sized painting!


Big Bill Hayward
650x60 Oil on canvas

Last but not least is the portrait on the right of "Big Bill" Hayward, a leading light in the Wobblies many years ago in the US. I am fascinated by left wing political history in the US - so much of it has become obscured and untacked about. Whilst the CIA were doing really shit things after the first world war until - well, still, probably - they have hidden a lot of that history and at the same time driven the history of socialism in the USA underground.  If you are interested in Big Bill, on this occasion Wikipedia is pretty good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Haywood