Apple

Apple 16" x 12" Watercolour

This is the small painting I did as a demonstration in the Mall Galleries during the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 201st exhibition which is on until 18 April 2013. I say 'demonstration' but my kind of painting is not entertaining in the way that most demonstrations are. I just sit there and paint and as I am a slow painter most of the audiences' time is spent watching the paint dry while I try to decide what to do next. Even so there were some brave souls who stayed to the end. Eventually, when everyone had gone home, I ate the apple.

Ivan Karp (1926-2012)

Footsball Palace - 21" x 29" - Watercolour

 

I heard, just the other day, that Ivan Karp had died. No big surprise, he was 86, even so, a spark has gone. Karp was the often outspoken owner of OK Harris in New York City. He represented some of the artists that inspired me during my student years, including: Claes Oldenburg, Robert Cottingham and Roy Lichtenstein. He was very helpful to young, emerging artists - giving advice and encouragement and suggesting other galleries if the work didn't suit him. I met him in 1984. I was living in the USA and had gone to New York to find a gallery to represent me. He wanted to show my work. He introduced me to Malcolm Morley, who had just won the inaugural Turner Prize. I think he was intrigued to find another realist British painter but one who worked in watercolours. I thought I'd arrived. In the end I chose not to show with OK Harris - I didn't like the terms or conditions and I knew I didn't have the confidence or stamina to be part of the New York art scene. This painting 'Footsball Palace' was one of the ones Ivan liked. The Footsball Palace, in Nags Head NC, with its foosball games, roller rink and bar which only served beer, has also gone. It really is the end of an era.

Auto Ecole

Auto Ecole - 10"x14" - Watercolour

This driving school shop front was in Cherbourg. It had everything that interested me: reflections, reflected light, a glimpsed interior, surface textures, geometry. At the time I was interested in the story of the Lamed Vavniks - thirty six people who, unknowingly, hold the world in balance. Maybe this is one of them.

Beach Huts

Sand - 14" x 21" - Watercolour

  

I like these municipal beach huts on the Cherbourg peninsula. They remind me of the Atlantic Wall - Hitler's WWII coastal defences. Not pretty, not even in keeping with seaside ambiance, but they will outlast most other beach huts (probably not one of the main things in their favour), and give a nice, solid surface to lean on while dusting the sand off your feet.

Pill Box

Pill Box - 10" x 14" - Watercolour

Pill boxes are among our least loved buildings which may be why I like them so much.

I was once caught in the middle of an argument between two foreign students learning English. Both had grandfathers who were involved in World War II. One grandparent, a German, had worked for the Organisation Todt and had been involved in the construction of the impressive Atlantic Wall beach defences in northern Europe. The other, a Frenchman, had been part of the forced-labour workforce who had been made to build the bunkers and fortifications near Caen. The young French student was describing how the workers had deliberately used a poor mix of concrete and half the number of reinforcement bars specified, in order to weaken the defences. The German student, torn between his anti-war sensibilities and the equally strong feeling that his engineer grandfather had been betrayed, said, "How could they have lived with such bad workmanship." In the hope of lightening the mood I said that we, in Britain, had built our own coastal defences. They both turned, regarding me with equal contempt, and said, "Yes, and it looks like it!"

This is another painting of the entrance to Rye Harbour, one of four which were awarded the Winsor & Newton/RI Award in the 200th exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours at the Mall Galleries, London. The exhibition runs until Sunday 25 March 2012.

The Blues

Harbour Entrance - 10" x 14" - Watercolour

Oliver Wendell Holmes an American 19th century physician and author recounted this experience in a lecture at Harvard University, June 29, 1870.

"I once inhaled a pretty full dose of ether, with the determination to put on record, at the earliest moment of regaining consciousness, the thought I should find uppermost in my mind. The mighty music of the triumphal march into nothingness reverberated through my brain, and filled me with a sense of infinite possibilities, which made me an archangel for the moment. The veil of eternity was lifted. The one great truth which underlies all human experience, and is the key to all the mysteries that philosophy has sought in vain to solve, flashed upon me in a sudden revelation. Henceforth all was clear: a few words had lifted my intelligence to the level of the knowledge of the cherubim. As my natural condition returned, I remembered my resolution; and, staggering to my desk, I wrote, in ill-shaped straggling letters, the all-embracing truth still glimmering in my consciousness. The words were these (children may smile; the wise will ponder): "A strong smell of turpentine prevails throughout."."

In this painting cobalt blue pervades throughout.

This is one of four paintings of Rye Harbour which won the 2012 Winsor & Newton/RI Award at the 200th exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours at the Mall Galleries, London. The exhibition opens Wednesday 14 March 2012 and runs until Sunday 25 March 2012.

Seeing Red

The Red Fishing Boat - 11" x 14" - Watercolour

I have had several different jobs to support my painting one of which was as a firefighter when I lived in Dorset. One day we were called out to a house fire. The owners were out shopping The fire had started when the washing machine in the basement overheated. Access to the basement was at the back of the house. To get to the fire we had to drag our hoses over the immaculate flower bed at the side of the house. The flowers which were in full bloom and obviously well cared for were flattened. The owners returned while we were getting the fire under control, at first they didn't realise that it was their house on fire and they were unhappy that we had damaged their flowers.

“What the f**k have you done to our f***ing flowers?” the husband said.

The young Firefighter in charge of the pump was a good fireman but known for his short temper.

“See this red thing . . .” he said, “. . . it's a f***ing fire engine.

See that red glow . . . it's your f***ing house on fire.

See that hose . . . it's how we get the f***ing water from the f***ing fire engine to put out the f***ing fire.”

I find that a small amount of red goes a long way.

This is one of four paintings for which I won the 2012 Winsor & Newton/RI Award all of which are in the 200th exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours at the Mall Galleries, London. The exhibition opens Wednesday 14 March 2012 and runs until Sunday 25 March 2012.