Although not my favourite occupation, we have just completed a marathon household makeover to our hall, stairs and landing which has consisted of replacing doors, much cleaning down, plastering, painting and decorating. This exercise has even embraced the use of a few of my smaller art paintbrushes to tackle some of the tricky areas where masking tape has failed to keep the work neat and tidy!!
Now at last I can resume personal activities which I find much more absorbing and less frustrating. As a start, I have been watching an excellent downloaded TV programme entitled “How to be a Surrealist” presented by Phillipa Perry, psychologist wife of Grayson Perry the Artist. Psychoanalysis, the study of the mind through an exploration of the subconscious was first developed by the psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and focused on dreams or accidental moments of speech when the mind articulates its true desires and fears. The programme underlined the development of the Surrealist movement whose members wished to free themselves from rational thought creating works which came from the impulses of their subconscious. Surrealism was not just limited to visual art as is commonly thought but was initially embraced in poetry and literature. It’s a topic I have never really explored directly in painting except on two occasions, one in my sketchbook and one completed work, as shown in the following examples.
Sketch for the Firebird
Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini is an opera by Berlioz and tells the story of the making of the statue of Perseus in Florence by the artist Cellini. Perseus holds up the severed Medusa’s head in the sculptured statue but in the painted artwork he is holding the head of Berlioz!
I also stumbled on a fascinating televised documentary exploring the life and work of Stanley Spencer, who I discovered is one of Billy Connolly’s favourite painters as there was common ground between them. Spencer experienced the horrors of the first World War in Macedonia and also had an extraordinary attachment to the village of Cookham in Berkshire where he lived, loved, fantasised and painted for most of his life and produced some of the most inspired paintings in the history of English art. His most famous paintings were connected with the theme of Christ’s resurrection in the Cookham village churchyard. Spencer’s romantic life was totally dysfunctional and his relationship with his wife, subsequent liaisons with the opposite sex and other characters he was familiar with in Cookham were featured in his highly original and sometimes controversial paintings. He also spent time studying and mixing with shipyard workers and welders in Glasgow and painted them (The Resurrection – Port Glasgow) – the Billy Connolly connection. Here is a short video showing some of Spencer’s work:-
A visit to Tate Britain is planned shortly to see “All too Human – Bacon, Freud and A Century of Painting Life” which also includes work by many other artists such as Walter Sickert, Paula Rego and Stanley Spencer. This visit should be a revelation with many paintings I have never seen before particularly a room with works by Paula Rego who is a wonderful role model for all female artists – a strong woman in a man’s world for much of her life. The recent “Me Too” campaign has, I understand, influenced people in the art world and also created a demand for artwork related to this subject so here are three of my paintings of two very outspoken women in the public eye.
Paula Rego 1 Watercolour
Paula Rego 2 Oil on Board
Dame Helen Mirren