I've had the nose, and various other parts to which I'm extremely attached, to the grindstone lately.
All very grown up and responsible in a "look at me with the bill paying skills" kind of way, but it does have it's downside.
By the time I get round to The Next Big Important Painting I'm generally so banjaxed I spend the evening staring myopically at blank canvas like a lobotomised boy scout.
However, nobody said it would be easy, so on I press with a whopping great picture of a Burlesque Queen who has been poured into her corsets and clearly forgot to say 'when'.
You know the sort of thing; a symphony in black leather, feathers, very small trousers and a couple of squadrons of Goldfinches doing a synchronised flypast.
More of that anon...
In the meantime, I'd been asked to do a couple of personal, memento paintings.
Not the sort of things I would normally do, but of some importance to the people involved.
I am the world's worst at doing anything unless I have a deadline, so I decide to get these two out of the way first, so that I can concentrate on 'The Big Picture".
These are they:
John Higgs - wit, bon viveur and rascal 1936 - 2009
'Eclipse' - big friendly horse
It's easy to get caught up in the idea that art has to be about lofty, high flown ideas and challenging, ground breaking issues of social importance.
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that complexity and validity are sleeves on the same shirt, and that in order to have an impact we must be loud, outrageous and witnessed by crowds.
Both these paintings made their recipients cry.
Both are treasured.
Sometimes less is everything
Lovely paintings :)
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