Author: davidwslack

A new painting.

It’s true, everyone DOES know his name, but do we REALLY know him? Can we ever truly understand how an entire life lived under an unrelenting series of such unutterably stressful and mind-bendingly fantastic situations shapes a person? YES! Cry the behavioural psychologists. Oh well, alright then, but even so, here is my study of perhaps a more corporeal little bear, still stoic as all get out, posing in one of his old haunts despite it all. I’d ideally like to see this one end up on the chimney breast of a sparsely furnished 1930s cottage, a Squire’s grand dining room, a cloud castle, or hanging askew on a wall behind piles of dusty ephemera in a truly ‘pop-up’ magic toyshop. Witches need not apply.

A new painting. ‘The Nature Table: Oil on board. I felt like painting an empty interior, and the ceramic bear was to be part of the ornamentation. During the process it somehow took on a life of its own and became the subject. A photobomb in oils. Yes, yes, yes, I DID provide the lighting, so it’s partly my fault.

This is the nearest I’ve come to actually painting an empty space – generally some creature or other comes padding along and pokes their shnoz downstage centre.

In the end, I like the balance though – the lifelong dance between awareness of space and the objects within it. Physical, metaphysical. One foot in each world.

Now Sold. Still Life with Stormtrooper – a Devotional Object. Oil on board. 12x15cm. I don’t know what it is with me and the original Stormtrooper design, but the hair stands up on the back of my neck at the slightest glimpse of those shiny white surfaces. It’s to do with the cold stare of the helmet I think. The mouth resembling the chilling Roger Kastel poster for Jaws – the sculpt was such a brilliantly timeless piece of work. Liz Moore who sculpted the original Stormtrooper head as well very many of the instantly iconic costumes including C3PO for the first film, died in a car crash just before filming began, so never got to see the (ahem) far, far reach of her work.

Overblown? Moi?

Now off to a new home. Noddy Noire – someone thinks they’re not in Kansas anymore. Oil on board 22x30cm (painting size). It was only a matter of time – our adventurous friend has made the leap from toy to drawing, then to Cyanotype print and finally a moody-ish little painting.

Noddy Noire – Oil on board 22x30cm (painting size).