Still life with crab

Chromacolour acrylic on MDF board. 59x79cm. Completed 7th April 2010.

I believe the Dutch still life painters were simply the greatest ‘recorders’ of what I like to call ‘the surface of things’. This is a contemporary version of the type of work done by the likes of Jan Davidsz de Heem or Willem Kalf, Dutch genre painters of the seventeenth century. The Dutch masters were the first true photorealists.

This is based on a photograph I took late in 2009 and it features a mango, bananas, a blue swimmer crab, a pineapple, a chinese hand painted bowl with capsicum, peaches, strawberries and grapes in it – there is a wedge of blue cheese, a seashell, a gold vase with roses and even a snowflake curio object in the painting. The table was a round one topped off with a difficult to paint cloth which is what I call ‘flip-flop’ colored. I think the technical term would refer to it as ‘interfering’ with the light.

Still life with fruit

Chromacolour acrylic on MDF board. 20x26cm. Completed 16th August 2009. Private collection.

One of great loves is that which I have for Dutch painting of the seventeenth century – which I consider to be the first era of photorealism.

As a contemporary artist I use a computer, but I still have to use my artistic skills to manipulate paint with brushes. I particularily love still life painting because they paint the surfaces of things so accurately and it is a joy to the eye to see what a two dimensional, flat, colored, bit of board (or canvas) can convey of the three dimensional world. When it is done well it makes me rather awestruck. This is what I try for in all of my work but its not the only thing.

A bunch of flowers

Acrylic on canvas. 29x29cm. Completed 24th January 2010.

I love the idea of flowers against a black background. This is halfway between realistic and total abstraction. This is another work inspired by the Dutch flower painters of seventeenth century. I usually don’t paint on canvas, and I usually mix my paints for a matt finish. This time I decided to change. Unfortunately the photograph doesn’t convey accurately the real thing and the black towards the right hand side has reflected back.

Satan and his minions

Abstract painting. Acrylic on canvas. 44x44cm. Completed 24th January 2010.

As an abstract painter I can tackle what is very much current history. This work is of Satan and his cohorts who are a planning a war. They plot to kill in the name of the almighty Satan. If you believe in god then you also believe in his nemesis and to an atheist who doesn’t believe in either I can take these symbols to explain the very powerful moral beliefs I have with as much passion as I can muster to a believer. Whether you are a Christian, Hindu or Muslim – the idea of Satan (and his evil servants) is as powerful as an icon as there is. And I have used it in an completely abstract painting to communicate the horror of the violence that lurks in these men’s minds.

There names are many and they often lurk in positions of high authority. In this case three people are quite clearly eviden- George Walker Bush, Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney, and Donald Henry Rumsfeld. The decisions they made have lead to the deaths of over two hundred thousand humans. There’s no difference between them and Satan. Abstract painting like this allows a ultra conceptual artwork to be made. It also allows me to upset a great number of people.