ANIMAL DRAWINGS 1984 – 5
Charcoal: compressed charcoal and water
In the Fens
Horses. Suddenly their heads over the barbed wire. Navy blue eye balls.
Perspective only works with stuffed animals.
Regents Park: Snow.
Patterns. Tropics. Multiple forms. Each taking you to a different space on the planet.
Mammals. Warm, Breathing. Scented.
Reptiles in an other world. Heat. Locked in some moment. A parallel one.
Plants & Animals – you can guess which continent by the look; art mirrors this.
Climbed in at night after Academy beers. Sounds sharpen & spirits coming close and moving away in the dark. Dropped acid to watch the Tigers. Elephants eye. Orangs comparing their hands with mine.
And humans. Some reverential and spellbound. Re-calling something.
Various drawings.
Zoo animals – Fen Horses
100 or so
Prose writings on Art
FEN WATERCOLOURS, POWDER COLOURS. 1984 – 6
Time of Halley’s Comet. So I explored the stars. And Krishnamurti. Saw Gorbachev before his fame. Laying a wreath on Marx’s tomb in Highgate. PRAVDA first published in UK a while after. On the 9 o’clock news, I was its first reader. Proud of those 2 things.
Sought out different coloured fields in the Fens. Poppies. Cornfields. Winter wheat.
Yellow Rape Seed. Black haze humming above it.
Peat fields after rain. Blacker. Made the crops glow. Understood Van Gogh for a moment. And a little later, the blue of the Solent.
As my parents returned South.
Drew crows and rooks flying. Very different.
Series of powder & watercolours
50 or so. Powdercolours.
50 or so Watercolours
Oil: ‘Black & Blue’
‘Bleached Land’
PEPPER BOX STUDIO 1986 – 9: OILS
Commuting to Brighton – Don & Julian – Space. Round. Vertical. Psychological effect on subjects.
‘My Shadow’ – ‘Candles’ – ‘Moon’ – ‘Street lit Church’ – ‘Patricia from Peru’
Cuckmere – camping – Julian & Bob – huge aerial space – far off figures at dusk – moment of recognition –
Watercolours – ‘Sea in sun & rain’
‘Striped Seaford Head’
‘Sea & Cliffs’
LIFE PAINTING – PADDOCKS STUDIOS 1991 – 4 (OIL)
Beautiful old room – oak beams – a group on Friday night – and then pub – full size figures in oils – ground sheet, easels rattling.
“Oshun” “Orange Rachel” “Red Rachel” “White Rachel” “Yellow Oshun” “Blue Vicky” A Deaf Man” “Black Rose”
I could never get a good painting a life model – however beautiful – without first recognising her identity. The person. Eyes. Face. Then her body would come alive, and the painting also. Otherwise it was just marks. Again and again I had to remind myself of this. Through painting.
CATS & HORSES & TREE – 1991 – 2 (OIL)
A feral cat. Orange. Moved in. Much liked. Despite attacking a Sunday roast without being invited.
“Cats”. They throw shapes. The tail. And gaze. Focuses of energy defining the paintings. Paws walking over gravity.
“Red Cat”
“Orange Cat”
“Cat Portrait”
“Hawthorn Tree”
I find plants harder to paint and see. I resort to composing a space not quite theirs. They are architectural but not very. But the sky behind helps.
“Horse”
Henfield. First day. Which horse? A dark one. Which end nose and which end tail? The horse decided.
Second day. Trying to get the flow and lean of legs, angles of support. Like a dancer.
Mane. Silhouette. Bulk. Colour. Ancient image in our DNA. And further back.
“Swift in flight”
Could only paint if I slowed down. But not too much.
YELLOW HEADS – 93 – BRIGHTON & LEWES (OIL)
Stark. In retrospect. Late night. Small boards. Tin of yellow. Sienna, Black or Prussian tubes.
Wake up – Witching Hour. Mirror at top of stairs. Communal house, so QUIET.
Trying to catch myself off-guard. On the board.
Tea. Toast. Try sleep again. Can’t Have another go at beaming myself onto the painting. Second guessing inspiration seldom happens. But it does.
No rules. Including having rules you need to make a crossing. From Here to There.
Some heads twinned with life models.
“Yellow 1” “Yellow 2”
“Self Portrait in the Cold” “Orange Self Portrait” “Multiple Heads”
“Self Portrait with Rachel” “Self Portrait with Rachel 2”
SCOTTISH WATERCOLOURS 1992
A week in Wester Ross – Don, Sean, Clive – Granite – sun – peaks drowning in rain – a net of clouds rolling across – where the ropes are as thick as the holes – Norse
Painted from a moving car – shores of Lochcarron.
“Red & Green” “Red & Brown” “Across the Highlands”
NEW FOREST 1987 – 9 (OIL)
Saw Cathedrals and churches of South England with my mother. Henges barrows and chalk figures. Photographs. Pevsner – Isle of Wight – the Great Storm. Painted my father – he spoke of Jung on ‘Face to Face’ (and heard Presley sing in New York in 1956).
“My Father.” “The Solent.” “Jackdaw in Flight”
“Rooks” (Charcoal)
Prose Writings
SMALL ABSTRACTS & LANDSCAPES 93 – 4 (OIL)
Living in wall of Lewes Castle. Studio with Jane, Rob, Dave. Beer in Lewes Arms. Diet of kebabs. Medieval dreams of blood pouring over parapets. Bonfire Night. “Verklarte Nacht” Schoenberg.
Trying to make imageless paintings. Of winter night and tropical memories. Palette knife – carving paint. To harden the picture.
Jupiter over roofs. Abstract moons. Got grubby. Friends tolerant.
Castle Ditch shows. 15 artists. “Out of the Ditch”.
Van. For Pyranees. Never got there. on the move for a couple of years. Frozen rivers. Floods. Children sledging.
Thaw. Watching the green come up. Blazing.
Communal landscape painting. As summer emerged I ventured out of town. Chanctonbury. Caburn. Ditchling. Devil’s Dyke.
“FACES” Phoenix Gallery. Sophie. Rod. Julian. Me.
“Burning & Dreaming” “Christmas” “Brunei” ‘Ditchling Black” “Cherry in Sodium Light” “Jaguar Nest” “A Yellow Space” “Moon through Telescope” “A Mile” “On Tom Paine’s Path” “Red Pot”
COOKSBRIDGE 1996 (OIL)
Lived beneath Downs – shared house – Blake – Walked lowlands – river – painted flowers – cows – Mt Harry – organising ‘Territory’ exhibition at Phoenix Gallery, Brighton.
“Mt Harry, Blue” “Mt Harry, Green” “Mt Harry, Green 2” “Blue Primroses” “Red Primroses” “Trees on the Weald” “Gold Cliffs, Newhaven” “Newhaven Headland”
Curated first ‘Territory’ exhibition.
WATERCOLOUR FIGURES – 1997
Preston Road, Brighton – Gallery assistant at Phoenix – hanging shows and maintenance – Elan Vital.
‘Black Figures” (series)
SUSSEX AND DORSET WATERCOLOURS – 1998
Trip to West Dorset, Abbotsbury studio – camping and painting coast inland.
“Golden Gap, Black & Green” “Golden Gap, Black & Yellow” “Mt Caburn, Pink”
Prose writings
Second ‘Territory’ show, London.
Saw show of contemporary Indian art – Raza. Hung show of Nigerian and Zimbabwean sculpture at Phoenix. Began survey of Modern Global Art – over 5 year span. Began “Spell’ poems.
ABSTRACT WATERCOLOURS – 1999
At James and Juliette’s house in Sussex
“Yellow, Blue, Red” “Yellow, Blue, Red 2”
Margate – 1999 – went to renovate hotel – project to be involved with Turner Centre. Continued “Spell”.
Brighton – 2000
Pencil drawings of figures. Began working as dustman on the beach.
Amsterdam – 2001, 2002
Visits to Rijsmuseum & Van Gogh Museum – “Brilliant Orange”
Continued working on the beach and uptown. Extraordinary people from all over world, eye-opening. In time off, continued studying Global Art. First painting, then sculpture, literature, music, cinema, conceptualism.
Continued “Spell’ till 2002 (1000 small poems)
WALES – 2004 – 10
Tenby (Acrylic)
Green cattle farms – to meditate – Welsh night sky again – Buddhist friends.
Cheap acrylics – coast colour shapes – beach where last Welsh wolf was shot. Skomer. Choughs – red –house cleaning- vertigo at Munt.
“Blue Metal Bay”
“Jack Daw Cliffs”
FISHGUARD – OIL, ACRYLIC
Presceli – Panthers – Window on Night Ferry – Turquoise Sea – Aivanhov – Maria’s dream – Land sculptures – buzzards kites seals – seeking a narrative – first childhood at other end of Gulf Stream.
“Red Dinas” “Glacial Erratic” “Panther” “Total Drop” “Irish Ferry “Sufi” “Green Buzzard “Carn Ingli” “For John Huston” “Nam”
Prose writings. Poems.
TREFIN – OIL, ACRYLIC
Cold – pub – care-work – Dyffryn Fernant – cats and dog – message from Clive – Tibetan and Vietnamese masters – the Welsh – Cruyff – Milkweg – letters from Patrick – peregrines – television – planets – cul-de-sac.
“Baea – Green” “Baea – Orange” “Blue Eruption” “Black Sea Girl”
“Sunsets” (series)
“Women” (series)
“Voetbal” “Scythian” “Saturn” “Neptune” “Night Monkey” “Snow Leopard” “Floors of Steam” “Carn Lidi Dark Red”
“Media paintings (series)
“Pen Beri” (series)
“Towards Porthgain” (large)
“The Irish Sun”
“Caracas, Jaguars”
Prose. Poems.
HASTINGS – 2010 – 2012
Early Hastings. Toby and Jo. Snow.
Finding a bridge back from Wales.
Artforum – Rod’s show.
“Bull’s Head” “New Fruit” “Snakes” “Orange” “Tropic Birds” “Marilyn”
I’d long avoided drawing. What was my drawing? I didn’t know.
Pencil and graphite, then – Alexandra Park: my face; this town – and pastels.
Big Cats; Heroines; Childhood sights.
I learnt how I drew. One-time marks. Found images. Pink. Green. Contrasts on Black.
Seeing David’s, Julian’s, John’s, Bob’s, Sophie’s work.
Work with BTCV making green environments for playgrounds; cutting back rhododendrons with John North and the lads.
Into Kent… Bedgebury. Sequoias. Michael the submarine admiral who came back from the dead.
Bob’s show – Canterbury – In memory of his mother.
Finally web-surfing. Global Art re-visited.
Dark Tower. Variable Stars.
Endless Summer. Written in Red.
Canada – Steph. Lake Ontario. Ridgetown.
WIDE horizon.
Online… whalewatching. Evert Lundquist. Marilyn getting stoned. Mother Meera.
Patrick’s show – Romania, China.
Dennis’s show – Jerusalem
Bob’s show – Languedoc
Teaching in Canterbury
Painting Cats again. Can’t get away from them. Don’t want to. Stripes and Spots. Force fields. Wakes me up, looking at them.
Eamonn’s poems
MTMT album waiting in the wings
Line of Sight