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.

Glittering Prize

Starboard Hand Beacon - 10" x 14" - Watercolour

This is one of a group of four paintings which has just won the coveted Winsor & Newton/RI Award at the 200th exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours at the Mall Galleries in London. This prestigious award is given to the artist who's work is judged to be "the most outstanding contribution to the exhibition". Needless to say I am immensely pleased and privileged to have been chosen out of such distinguished company which includes some of the foremost watercolour painters in the world.

All the paintings in the group depict different parts of the same place; I often make a series of paintings based around a particular location, sometimes with each picture leading into the next. In this series the connections are not overt except in that each of the landscapes is within a few yards/metres of the others and each painting contains powerful personal resonances for me.

I will post all four paintings (plus one extra) on the blog along with text that connects with the pictures:

This looks across the deep water entrance to Rye Harbour towards a navigation beacon, life preserver and the dunes of Camber Sands.

"...Pulling mussels from the shell."

The painting is one of five 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.

Four Deckchairs on the Seafront

Four Deckchairs on the Seafront - Acrylic on Board

This is one of six of my acrylic paintings on show in this years Royal Society of British Artists exhibition which opens at the Mall Galleries (near Trafalgar Square) London on 29 February and closes 10 March 2012.

Twelve photographs showing the different stages of this painting feature in a Masterclass article on using glazes in acrylic painting in the March issue of Artists & Illustrators magazine.

Feet Up

Feet Up - 11" x 14" - Acrylic on Board

This painting is one of six acrylic paintings that I will be showing in the forthcoming Royal Society of British Artists exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London - 29 February to 10 March 2012.

Empty Deckchair

Empty Deckchair - 11" x 15" - Acrylic on Canvas

This painting is one of six that will be on show in the upcoming Royal Society of British Artists exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London - 29 February to 10 March 2012.

One of the, perhaps less obvious, influences on my painting is the work of the Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). I especially liked the natural way that he made people part of the landscape. His figures are often partly obscured - maybe passing behind a tree or crossing a bridge with an umbrella against the rain - and no more or less important than the landscape they inhabit. As a young art student I discovered that my widowed neighbour, her husband had died in the late 1950s, had a complete set of Hiroshige's woodblock prints of the 'Fifty Three Stations of the Tokaido'. She kept them wrapped in newspaper in the cupboard under the stairs. Whenever I visited her and asked to see them she would fetch them, give them to me and leave. When I had finished looking at them she would return, and put them back in their place in the dark under the stairs. They were very beautiful and I spent many hours studying them. She told me her husband had acquired the set while in the Far East at the end of the war. I asked her why she didn't display them. She simply said, "Jim was a prisoner of the Japanese, I can't bear to look at them." After that I didn't like to ask to see them again.

Taking a Photo

Taking a Photo - 10" x 14" - Acrylic on Board

This painting is one of six acrylics that I will be showing in the forthcoming Royal Society of British Artists exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London - 29 February to 10 March 2012.

Somewhere in New York

Pool # 3: Igor Somewhere in New York State - 10" x 14" - Watercolour

This is another portrait that demonstrates my reluctance to paint likenesses. Igor, and his wife Irene, were my hosts when I first visited New York City. They lived in Orange County NY. Igor introduced me to the CD and the Apple Mackintosh computer so it must have been 1984. He also taught me how to speak American. They took me to visit friends who lived in the Catskill Mountains, somewhere in New York State, and that's where I painted this picture.

Cross Channel Ferry

Ricky Asleep on the Cross Channel Ferry - 10" x 14" - Watercolour

I don't do many portraits. I like doing them but tend to concentrate on everything except getting a likeness, which, to be honest, is a bit of a weakness in portraiture. This one was done from a series of photos of the painter Ricky Romain (http://www.rickyromain.com) on the Channel ferry en route to Paris. It was a short trip but I came away with many ideas for subsequent paintings, including several of the steps series already included in this blog. At the time I was reading some short stories by Honoré de Balzac and during the trip I visited the August Rodin Museum hence the passing similarity to the statue of Balzac by Rodin. I especially enjoyed painting the vinyl seat and the wall: I used a toothbrush to spatter the paint through a paper stencil to get the cork tile effect.

Zut Alors!

Man on Steps - 10" x 14" - Watercolour

This was my father's favourite painting, another forerunner of “Looking Down Some Steps” ('Keep it Simple' - 12 December 2011), and painted at about the same time as the previous painting entitled “Steps” ('Sacre Bleu' – 27 December 2011). For my part I always wanted a raincoat like this (it was a Humphrey Bogart thing) and it reminded me of a dreadful pun in an old Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band song, 'Big Shot':

“Have you got a light, mack?”

“No, but I've got a dark brown overcoat!”

The steps were in Paris although I don't remember where. There are a lot of horizontal lines and the painting is divided into thirds, horizontally and vertically. In the preliminary drawings I experimented with the shadows following the diagonal, but it looked wrong so I changed it in the finished painting. The palette is very limited: earth colours, alizarin crimson and ultramarine. Most of the painting is done with layers of washes but the foreground steps use a wet into wet technique. I like the way the shadow changes colour and become less sharp as it moves away from the figure.