| Self-Portrait With Beard: 25
x 12 Need I say more? I had Percy Wyndham Lewis' portrait of Ezra Pound half in mind when I did this. Someone who saw this portrait commented, 'one expects artists to be dirty and disheveled - it is a nice change to see one in a starched collar and designer tie!' Price on application if you feel your life is incomplete without this portrait of me! I've since lost the beard. |
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The
Paintings
All these paintings are in egg tempera on board. The technique involves mixing powdered pigment with a binding medium containing egg yolk, and comes somewhere between watercolours and oils. It was used extensively in Mediaeval times for painting icons. Both watercolours and oils evolved from it, eventually leaving the original egg component behind. Both William Blake and Samuel Palmer painted in egg tempera, not watercolours as is often assumed. The paintings here began in a number of different ways, but most originated with an 'automatic' drawing in watercolour pastel, that was enlarged, 'worked up' and embellished to form the finished paintings. As such, they represent messages from the subconscious mind that the conscious mind has interpreted as it went along. The rational, 'thinking' mind has effectively been bypassed, and the resulting creation is largely intuitive.
In most cases, the artist himself is not entirely certain of what these messages mean, and the viewer is invited to provide his own interpretation. All these paintings were created 1997-2000.
