Return of The Crucial Three

Returning to the subject matter of the ‘Homepride Fred-the flour-grader’ compositions, this one again featuring an arrangement of all three of the iconic figures in the collection, arranged against a ground of a hand-drawn-and-painted approximation of a Dekoplus fabric design of 1960s vintage that might be said to make a nod toward the similar device of the representation of bold wallpaper patterns employed by Patrick Caulfield as an element of the complex visual language of his paintings: the ghost of Euan Uglow always haunts the painting of the ‘Freds’, of course.

As always, the play of natural light over the plastic surfaces of the objects and the manner in which fleeting little ‘pings’ of reflected colour occur, with the challenge of recording them, is a constant delight in the process and reason enough to continue mining this particular seam of pictorial interest.  Additionally, a little light research has unearthed the discovery that the Homepride ‘Fred’ character – advertising icon to-be – was ‘born’, being the idea of Bobs Geers and Gross, in 1964, the very year of my own birth, so that feels like another connection, however tenuous and arbitrary.

‘Three Homepride Freds and Dekoplus Design’

oil and graphite on canvas/16″ x 20″/April 2019

 

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The finished painting on the easel in front of the composition, as painted

 

And Then There Were Two…

Following the previous entry, the latest painting to be brought to a conclusion features a different composition of the same subject matter and context, with but two of the collected ‘Homepride Fred’ figures rather than three and a slightly more  ‘measured’/geometrical approach applied to the representation of the patterned wallpaper and consideration of the placement of the objects in relation to (the figure to the left might be observed to be ‘pinned’ at the shoulders within the confines of an aspect of the pattern, for example), all being a bit more ‘Uglowian’ in conception, perhaps, which returns us to the original image to feature the Freds dating from almost two years ago.

Again, the active observation of the play of natural light upon the surface of the objects, those fleeting, momentary ‘flashes’ that enliven the whole set-up, describing aspects of their form and nature, is the motivating factor in engaging with such a challenge and the hoped-for result is a convincing pictorial representation of such, a record of the environmental activity, the time spent looking and painting.

‘Two Freds and Retro Wallpaper’

oil on canvas/16 x 20″/March – April 2019

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The finished painting on the easel, in position as observed and painted

During a little light workplace research, hoping to find suitable examples of wallpaper design that might provide grist to the creative mill and extend the project, it was something of a delight to find an example of a ‘Fred’ amongst the pages of a rather fine book:

Revisiting Old Friends

‘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

Blue Sunday

‘Subbuteo Footballer #3’

oil on canvas/40cm x 30cm/May 2018

Continuing the current theme and series of small paintings, this most recent one, brought to a resolution yesterday afternoon after a substantial session on Saturday, depicts another of the recently-acquired late-1980s’ vintage Subbuteo ‘lightweight’ football (soccer) player figures, enlarged on the canvas to around x 10 scale, this one being from the ‘blue’ team in the boxed set, opposing the ‘reds’.

Again, part of the challenge involves the ‘Uglowian’ representation of different types of plastic (the cup of the base into which the figure is fixed being of a particularly ‘polished’, highly-reflective-surfaced type not unlike a ceramic glaze), some of which has, obviously, a hand-painted finish applied to it, thus opening-up a dialogue between two forms of hand-painted object in the figure and the painting itself.

Hand-Painted Figure

‘Subbuteo Footballer’

oil on canvas/40 x 30cm/May 2018

Following-on from the previous pair of entries and paintings, this latest effort on the easel, considered now to be at a point of resolution, depicts, via the painterly process, one of the miniature football player figures from a recently-acquired vintage ‘Subbuteo’ team (the upscaling is about x10).

Contrary to the identifier scrawled upon the box by a previous owner (a name to which we are unable to subscribe in these parts), the thinking here is that the presence of the black-clad goalkeeper figure (surely inspired by the style preference of the legendary Lev Yashin) suggests, rather, that the team is intended to represent the Soviet Union circa early-1960s, a more palatable and indeed exotic and Europhilic, prospect. Nostalgia, naturally, pervades such an object containing a collection of objects, the ghosts of both one’s own and another’s (or others’) childhood making their presence felt – this is precisely the vintage of such toys, that have undergone various transitions since, that I was familiar with in the mid-1970s, the things to be collected and enjoyed immediately prior to developing a usurping passion in recorded music with an immersion in the contemporary post-punk sound (the two subsequently being brought together in the form of The Undertones‘ ‘My Perfect Cousin’ single and its accompanying artwork).

To return to the painting, as before there’s a little dialogue between the (quite roughly) ‘hand-painted’ nature of subject/object* and the painting itself and also a little something of that challenge of Euan Uglow‘s in representing the surface quality of plastic (as in the Homepride ‘Fred the flour-grader’ figure Uglow painted, followed suit by myself, in conversation with, last summer), more than one of which are present here – the base, its cup, is of a high-gloss nature that suggests nothing so much as a ceramic glaze, something to which we are no strangers here at TOoT and indeed have done battle with, again, to unsatisfactory effect, once again, quite recently (it occurs that this painting is, in effect, the familiar bowl-form – most often glazed or otherwise glass itself, highly reflective, with which I have been engaged on-and-off since undergraduate studies – with a vertical form filling and emerging from it!).

* A favourite pastime was to repaint the team sets one acquired to one’s own specifications, to ‘perfectionistically’ improve upon the quality-as-purchased, to take account of changing fashions/styles or otherwise individualise particular players.

Three Pears

‘Three Pears with Geometric Shape’  oil on canvas/20″ x 16″

On a recent grocery shop, Anna picked up this trio of pears and then, once home, deposited them on a shelf in the conservatory/studio. A quick reorganisation and they were in place and ready to be actively contemplated and the findings represented on canvas. A brief ray of sunlight observed one morning before the day’s painting process began suggested the geometrical shape thus projected might be incorporated into the composition and thus it came to pass, as an additional element to the familiar and habitual.

As ever, one’s mind turns to the various pears painted by Euan Uglow, particularly with these objects displaying a combination of yellow and red skins as did examples studied by the master.

July, a Not-Quite Fruitless Month…

July, although without day job commitments (an academic term-time contract means regular breaks and a nice long summer recess, of course), also seems to have passed without a great deal of painting being done, although a little has been processed.

By way of context, I must admit here to being a long-time admirer of the work of Euan Uglow and his commitment to a particular way of looking at and recording the visual world. Having invested-in the essential ‘Complete Paintings’ some years ago and frequently studied its contents since, I’d always had a certain fondness for Uglow’s representation of a Homepride ‘Fred the flour man’ figure, a familiar advertising icon remembered from childhood and youth.

Euan Uglow ‘Flour Man’ 1972-4

It transpires that Fred figures, smiling and friendly in appearance even with those ‘Clockwork Orange’ bowler hat cultural associations of a similar vintage, were manufactured for commercial purposes in a number of forms, some of such functional value to the baking process as flour sifters, water vessels, etc, and encountering a couple of these objects during a recent potter around a local antiques/vintage emporium presented the opportunity, too tempting to pass up with such art historical associations as they possess to those of us in the know, to invest in as potential grist to the painting mill.

Soon, the newly-homed pair of ‘Freds’ were in position, upon and against a ground of cardboard not unlike that of the Uglow painting in hue and tone, to pose for a pencil sketch that evolved into a rudimentary watercolour study of the form and reflective properties of (the surface appearance of) the plastic figures.

‘Flour men figures’ watercolour/30 x 21cm (sheet size)/July 2017

Thus completed, the progression into oil on canvas became the next stage of investigation into, as reportedly piqued the interest of Uglow, the challenge of depicting plastic, in this instance not one but two kinds, the larger object on the left having a more reflective surface quality than the more ‘silk-matt’ one to the right, with the result, more thinly and finely painted than the more physically textured technique applied to the ‘white pears’ and ‘woodscapes’ of the past year, presented below: an enjoyable challenge.

‘Mr Uglow and Me’ oil on canvas/20″ x 16″/July 2017

‘Mr Uglow and Me’ in context with the model figures, as the painting set-up.