‘Three Freds and Retro Wallpaper’
oil on canvas/16″ x 20″/March 2019
Returning to previous-visited subject/object-matter in the form of the Homepride ‘Fred’ plastic figures (please see here), this time incorporating a third and more recently-acquired member of the team, its facial features more weather-worn and thus offering a more ambiguous expression than the other broadly-smiling pair.
The objects were actively observed as placed upon a horizontal shelf against a backdrop of boldly-patterned wallpaper of recent vintage referencing a Sixties-Seventies’ design trope.
The use of both the ‘Freds’ and the patterned ground are influenced by Euan Uglow, a frequent visitor to these parts, of course, encouraging a ‘measured’ approach to proceedings, in the interest of a convincing verité up to a certain point at the same time as an ‘all-over’ approach to the picture surface, with a degree of licence taken in the pursuit of creating a picture in its own right, the wallpaper offering the opportunity to represent a painterly equivalent to itself.
The light-reflective surfaces of the plastic figures, each subtly or a little more obviously different from the others, as ever present the opportunity of responding to and recording any fleeting moments as observed under the mercurial conditions of natural daylight, and engaging specifically with that Uglowian challenge of depicting (the appearance of) plastic, within the general concern of representing form.
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The finished painting on the easel in front of the composition, as painted
James Rowley Artist 
These are wonderful, and I’m right with on on the delights of Uglow. However I can’t see these figures without being reminded of the horrors of 1970s television: ‘graded grains make finer flour’ – how these nonsensical phrases stick in the mind as more useful information slips away!
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Thank you Michael, nice to know of your appreciation of Uglow, I was lucky enough to be able to experience ‘Nude, From Twelve Regular Vertical Positions From the Eye’ on display, along with a maquette illustrating his process, as an adjunct to the most recent John Moores Painting Prize exhibition last year, a real treat. And of course you’re right about those advertising phrases, as I recall too – how potent they are, even down the years (alas!). Best wishes.
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