Half an Update…

The recent absence of blog updates does not mean hands have been idle by any means, and the drawings for the Seventies project have continued at a regular pace as will now be illustrated.

First of all, and continuing with the Northern theme that had been developing within the project, a double portrait drawing – also incidentally incorporating a still life element – from a source image that nostalgically recalls the early evening local television news programme that was broadcast into our homes in the north east corner of Wales, courtesy of the transmitters that brought us Granada TV rather than its Welsh equivalent (for which we required a special aerial adaptor that still proved unreliable). Thus are depicted two of the presenting team of ‘Granada Reports’ in its mid-1970s’ heyday, a young Tony Wilson as apprentice to the legend that was and remains Bob Greaves, with all fashions of the day on display.

Tony Wilson and Bob Greaves, ‘Granada Reports’ 1970s

graphite and putty eraser on ‘Seawhite’ cartridge paper/42 x 30cm

Next, the hip, young cultural gunslinger Tony Wilson is his other contemporary television presenting guise as more casually-attired host of ‘So It Goes’, introducing new music to the north west region, including a selection of the punk and post-punk bands from Manchester and environs that had been formed and developed in the wake of the Sex Pistols’ legendary appearances in the city in 1976. As ‘So It Goes’ fell victim to a notorious appearance by Iggy Pop at the conclusion of its second series, so Tony Wilson’s dissemination of the new sounds found other outlets, within ‘Granada Reports’ and also, of course, with the founding of Factory Records, both of which came to feature Joy Division as they grew and became such an icon of the time and place, and proceeded to transcend both as they remain synonymous with.

Tony Wilson, ‘So It Goes’

graphite and putty eraser on ‘Seawhite’ cartridge paper/42 x 30cm

The recently-published volume of Paul Slattery’s photographic record of Joy Division at Strawberry Studios and around the town of Stockport on 28th July, 1979, features the source image for this drawing on its cover. ‘Here are the young men’ indeed, but creating some of the most powerful and resonant music of the era. If I’m absolutely honest, I didn’t acquire my first Joy Division record, the ‘Transmission’/’Novelty’ 7” single, until the February of 1980, after which obsession took hold, but the seeds of my devotion to them had undoubtedly been sown in my soul during the previous autumn, via the auspices of the John Peel radio programme (of course), so their inclusion in the project is entirely appropriate.

Joy Division after a Paul Slattery photograph

graphite and putty eraser on ‘Seawhite’ cartridge paper/42 x 30cm

More musicians pictured standing (and squatting) around can be found on the cover of The Stranglers’ (my very favourite group of the time) ‘Black and White’ LP, and this image, along with the band’s iconic logo, that I would have drawn/copied often then, forms the content of the next drawing which, in effect, illustrates one of the three music albums that I received as presents for Christmas 1979 (so we’re really pushing at the limits of the Seventies here!).

The Stranglers ‘Black and White’

graphite and putty eraser on ‘Seawhite’ cartridge paper/30 x 42cm

The others were Public Image Ltd’s ‘Metal Box’, originally released as a collection of three 12” vinyl EPs contained within a tin canister (as very sadly I no longer own this object of desire, the substitute utilised as the model for this still life is in fact the reduced-circumstances and feeble impostor CD-sized version of the can, but I’d like to feel the spirit of the original can be inferred from the representation) – I have blogged about this on a previous occasion – and The Clash’s masterpiece double LP, ‘London Calling’, the front cover of which is faithfully reproduced in pencil here. In time, one learnt of the genesis of the latter artefact’s design, by Ray Lowry, in the artwork accompanying Elvis Presley’s debut album, and of such concepts and practices as artistic influence and postmodern ‘appropriation’, but I’m sure that wasn’t of particular concern to my 1979 self!

‘Metal Box’

graphite and putty eraser on ‘Seawhite’ cartridge paper/42 x 30cm

‘London Calling’ LP sleeve (front)

graphite and putty eraser on ‘Seawhite’ cartridge paper/30 x 42cm

Film and Football

Continuing with the Seventies project and another selection of drawings, the latest to be processed with reference to memories retained from growing up.

First up are a pair of stills from the film (movie) ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot’, which I recall seeing on television for the first time (it became what seemed like an annual event for a period of a few early-Eighties’ years) in 1979, sometime around the August Bank Holiday which was also the time John Peel, as featured previously, was mentioning his 40th birthday. I obviously enjoyed the film a great deal, enough to return to watch it numerous times, and can remember in particular its sun-bleached aesthetic and those scenes near the conclusion of the tale featuring a car journey between Clint Eastwood‘s ‘Thunderbolt’ and [spoiler alert] a dying ‘Lightfoot’ (Jeff Bridges, who became a real favourite actor of mine).

‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot #1’

graphite and putty eraser on Seawhite cartridge paper/A3 (42 x 30cm)

‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot #2’

graphite and putty eraser on Seawhite cartridge paper/A3 (42 x 30cm)

Next, a drawing sourced from an original image that graced a number of the front covers of Wrexham FC‘s match programmes towards the latter part of 1977 and which features the central figure of Bobby Shinton celebrating the single goal that defeated Bristol City in a Football League Cup Third Round tie played at the Racecourse Ground on Wednesday 26th October, a match I attended in the company of my father and more than 10,000 other spectators. Shinton, obviously the goalscorer, is accompanied by a couple of teammates, the late Johns Roberts and Lyons, with the dejected opponent being, I think, Gerry Sweeney.

‘Bobby Shinton (Wrexham v Bristol City, 26/10/1977)’

graphite and putty eraser on Seawhite cartridge paper/A3 (42 x 30cm)

These were the great days when Third Division Wrexham were bona fide giant killers – Bristol City were enjoying a brief period in the First Division at this time – and would reach the quarter final stage of both the FA and League Cups during the 1977-78 season, the club’s most successful ever when they went on the be crowned champions of Division Three and earn promotion to the heady heights of English football’s second tier for the first and only time in their history before adding the Welsh Cup to the list of honours. The Racecourse became littered with the scalps of the ‘big’ clubs – Bristol City again and then Newcastle United were both treated to 3-goal drubbings in FA Cup tie replays in the new year – and it took the might of European champions Liverpool and a referee-assisted Arsenal to end those glorious cup runs, memories of which remain vivid, welcome as they are in these times of the club plumbing the nadir of their almost 100 years in the national league structure (I could go on…).

The particular significance of the Bobby Shinton drawing is the fact that I made a version of it back in the day, which was published in the art section of the children’s pages of the local (NE Wales) ‘Evening Leader’ newspaper – unfortunately, no tangible evidence of this remains but my parents did retain a cutting of an earlier artistic effort submitted to and published in the same ‘paper, which has subsequently come into my possession and here, accordingly, introduces/precedes the next drawing, one of my then-favourite footballer, Kevin Keegan, pictured here representing Liverpool FC in 1976, when the original drawing was made. Of particular and curious footballing interest, 1976-77 was Keegan’s last season at Liverpool before departing for new continental challenges at SV Hamburg – by the following season, he had been replaced by a player who went on to even greater achievements and legend at Liverpool, Kenny Dalglish, who downed Wrexham with a hat-trick at the Racecourse, another special occasion I was present to witness (and of which there is Youtube footage – never mind the game, look at the state of that vintage Seventies’ pitch!).

(note the Kevin Keegan drawing is credited to a ‘James Roudey’, which is not a misprint but an interpretation by a member of the newspaper staff based on what was obviously my illegible handwriting even then – how typical that I should find a way of taking something of the gloss off a public achievement!)

‘Kevin Keegan 1976’

graphite and putty eraser on cartridge paper/A4 (30 x 21cm)

Photorealism #5: Richard E Grant

‘Richard E Grant After a Photograph’

oil on canvas/20″ x 16″/December 2017

Continuing with the photorealist portrait ‘project’, this painting in fact being completed prior to Christmas, the image subject here is a monochrome representation of a print of a photograph of the actor and perfumier Richard E Grant, whose Instagram feeds are closely followed around these parts in addition to the enjoyment gained from his acting performances.

Again, the technical approach is intended to foreground a painterly surface, keeping things pretty loose, whilst at the same time attempting to capture a certain expression.

Photorealism #4: Mr Cave Again

Continuing with the recent series of photorealist portraits, and having another source image featuring Nick Cave amongst the available model stock, this one with a few more years on the subject’s visage, thus the painting process proceeded to a point of resolution, again soundtracked by the many wonders of the Bad Seeds’ back catalogue.

The source image seemed to offer the possibilities of a more expansive mark-making approach than the previous example, thereby resulting in what I’d consider to be a more satisfying painting experience and result, although, regarding the latter, that underlying dread doubt always nibbles away, of course.

‘Nick Cave After a Photograph #2’

oil on canvas/20″ x 16″/December 2017

Pictured below is the painting adjacent to the source from which it was produced, the actual working environment…

And also, in an amusing juxtaposition, one of those serendipitous moments, with the first Nick Cave portrait in the background, at its shoulder (it’s just something about the pose and expression of the latter)…

Photorealism #3: Tove Jansson

Continuing with what seems to have become the project (of sorts) of painting from photographic sources, the latest product on/off the easel features an image of the artist and author Tove Jansson, another of the favoured cultural icons around these parts.

Again, the emphasis is primarily on the process, the materiality of the paint and its mark-making properties, the rendering of tone and tonal transitions, but the image-content, and some form of faithfulness to and resolution of, is of course ever-present.

‘Tove Jansson After a Photograph’

oil in canvas/20″ x 16″/November 2017

More Photorealism

Following on from the recent photorealist ‘portrait’ of Samuel Beckett, the latest painting on and now, resolved, off the easel has been along similar lines, employing similar means, albeit on a reduced scale (having exhausted the existing stock of larger canvases: had one been available, it would have been utilised).  This latter aspect proved itself to be less satisfying than the preceding endeavour – more cramped, less painterly, offering less scope for the brush strokes to just ‘be’, to be representative of the process of the ‘work’ of art, with, rather, virtually every mark having to be more descriptive in nature.

The portrait subject is Nick Cave, with the pose offering the bonus of describing the hands in addition to the head/face, the immediate object of reference being an A3 monochrome print of a colour photograph.

‘Nick Cave After a Photograph’

oil on canvas/20″ x 16″/October – November 2017

Ever since hearing The Birthday Party on the John Peel show, and catching the band live in 1981 (bottom of a bill supporting headliners Bauhaus with Vic Godard and Subway Sect between, at the Liverpool Royal Court), Nick Cave has loomed large on the personal cultural landscape, being a firm musical favourite as his career and repertoire has evolved, and it’s been a profoundly rewarding pleasure to listen, chronologically, to a good deal of Nick and the Bad Seeds’ back catalogue as an accompaniment to the painting process (providing the perfect excuse to indulge), if a bit strange to be looking so intently at an image of the artist as he performs.

A Conclusion…

The luxury of four painting sessions over an extended weekend allowed the Samuel Beckett photorealist ‘portrait’, after a print of Jane Bown‘s original photograph, to arrive at some form of resolution, presented here below upon the easel in a state of repose and in various details.

Although I’d previously spent a couple of years, individually, on drawing-from-photographic-source projects (please refer to the 2008 and 2014 (actually March ’14 – February ’15) archives over at the Blogspot version of TOoT), developing technique between, I’d not worked in oil on canvas and on such a scale in such a manner (although the recentish series of ‘woodscapes’ referred to compositional photos in support of other empirical sources) – obviously there are many different stylistic precedents that one is aware of (even, to take such as Gerhard Richter or Chuck Close for example, within the work of a particular artist) and it became very much a matter of working towards interpreting the source image in a way that had integrity as ‘painterly material’ (and technique) for want of a better phrase, achieving that balance between painted mark as painted mark and a certain fidelity to the source as image, the former as ‘actively contemplated’ response to the latter, of course.

‘Samuel Beckett After Jane Bown Photograph’

oil on canvas/40″ x 30″/October 2017

[detail]

[detail]

[detail]

[detail]

Finally, here’s the painting in position as it was ‘processed’, alongside the source image.

An Update

The Samuel Beckett portrait (see previous entry) in its current state after a long session’s painting on Saturday afternoon and another hour on Tuesday morning: a long way still to go before any form of resolution is reached, and the scope/need for many a revision along that way.

Slow Painting A-Comin’…

‘Samuel Beckett’ oil on canvas/40″ x 30″ (in progress)

Currently, I’m attempting something in paint that I’ve not done previously, in transposing a photograph – and an iconic one, at that – in oils on a large scale, in response to what we shall term a domestic commission. The challenge, to begin, has proved itself to be exactly how one might go about such an endeavour, with a few false starts thrown in, before things have started to make some sort of visual sense and progress is being made, albeit in stately fashion.

The starting point, the subject, is of course a print (A3 and squared-up to be drawn on to the canvas) of Jane Bown’s famous and rather wonderful portrait of Samuel Beckett, taken in 1976 when Beckett would have been seventy years of age, delightfully craggily expressive of features. The good thing about such an enlarging is that it allows a freedom with the application of the paint, to make of a mechanical photographic print something hand-made and painterly – whether the result in any way does justice to the original and subject will be another matter.

In an act of what might be termed ‘method painting’, I’m currently reading Beckett’s novel ‘Molloy’ and will soon be taking up ‘Malone Dies’ in order to in some way ‘inhabit’ the author/subject and the world he creates – that this experience is a pleasurable one only enhances to the experience, the creative process.