I don’t have much to say about ‘True Story’. This is not becasue it is not a strong image, but becasue I feel you were fairly comprehensive in your assesment during its production in an earlier blog. Its power does seems to be in the small but significant shift made between the original photographic image the the painting.

Technically I think it is one of your best pictures. It seems to have both the flatness of such posters and the fleshy depth of portrait painting. It has an uneasy tension between a real character and an imagined figure of nostalgia.

The ’sunset’ tryptych seems to develop a tendency in your work for awkward imagery. There is a snese of unease in the drawing which seems considered in relation to the setting and the dynamics of the figures. I like the idea of this continual struggle an attempt to pull down this figure who appears effortless unmovable. Thie ring is clearly baconesque as is the type of struggle. Yet I don’t think you move into the relams of pastiche. This seems like a more pathetic attempt at heroism rather than Bacon’s agenda of personal tragedy and suffering.

 Fish seems quite Weischer like. Perhaps it is the use of space or maybe the colour range. Either way, I tihnk it isw a really strong painting but I don’t necessarily have much to say about it.

‘Clap your hands superman’ is interesting. Its a considered deviation from the other ‘crucifixiion’ sketch which it directly relates to. It seems like you are consciously looking to insert the absurd into this one. Perhaps this works or perhaps it is the product of a fear of the proximity the image has with Chirstian motifs and you being uncomfortable in dealing with this overly trodden path. I think the solution perhaps lies somewhere between the two and will emerge from an exceptance of your attraction to the particular symbol and its resonance and to just work with it with an awarness but blaise lack of care.

‘I the flight of Icarus plight’ is clearly a point where our works starts to sit on similar subject matter. I think this could provide fascinating breeding ground, a constant conversation perhaps. Iconographically it works so well. The scrambling Icarus’ failed attempt offset and highlighted by the succesful flight of the hot air ballon. The covering of the ballon, with the cartoon egg man adds a good dash of ludicrous humour. I think this particular subject matter requires this addition of a light touch.  

The dog walking man seems to be a recurring motif of yours and one which I have particular interest in. It is obvisouly, to me at lerast from our discussions, derived from the nature of the chance glance in photography. I think you could experiment even further with where the figure is cut off, perhaps conscioulsy half cut by the frame, as if leaving perhaps (and also the kind of framing more naturally associated with photography). What I find interesting is that such a cut of in a photograph is just the result of the flux of life and the unpredictability of the ditritus when you frame a general scene. But when we add this into a painting it takes on an importance, it becomes significant in narrative terms, a protagonist leaving the stage.

I have been doing a few sketches of men walking dogs as, I think, a direct result of your dog and boy painting a while ago. It is interesting, therefore, to see a similar motif return to your work after you discussed it in some depth in that found photograph a while ago. With your permission it may well be a motif i continue to play with. I am in this instance giving you the god like role in the allowance of dog walking men.

The beach seems to be an increasingly popular sight for your figures to find themselves. It is obviously a familar scene in painting terms and is particuarly relevant for british painters. Have you seen Courbet’s beach scenes? Look them up, they are truly sublime and not really what you expect from him. Have you visited the beach rescently? If not then do you think it might help?

In terms of meaning the beach is, as you are aware, clearly a site of cahnge, a place on the edge of one land and leading out to a seemingly limitless void of sea. It resonates with enough potential to build up significant conversations with the figures with which you populate it. It obviously provides you with horizotnal forms of structuring but then takes away vertical reference points. This is an obvious point but perhaps one worth thinking about. Do you play on this horizontality or do you need to more consciously work on intriducing vertical reference points? Do you consider the placing in terms of the x or y coordinates primarily? You might not consciously prioritise either but its worth having a think about.

I particuarly like the colour ranage in this picture. That blue just seems to glow. The scrambling figure is good. I have just finihsed two paintigns with scrambling figures and a load of drawigns. i am plannign more. I think I am going to continue working from phtogoraphic images.

This painting is one of your best yet, I think. One criticism would be that from the jpeg thje application of paint seems fairly similar all over; but thats very hard to judge from a digital image.

It has certainly given me a fair bit to think about with my own work becasue I feel it relates quite directly in many ways.