'Men I Know' part 5

'Ken' 24½"x18½" Oil on canvas

A painting of fellow artist Ken Gerberick, another in the ongoing series of "Men I know".

Ken as an artist is very diverse, producing paintings, collages, and particularly assemblages - for which he is best known. These carefully built collections are made up of items and materials which society has used, often abused, and then discarded.

Most of the source materials and items that he uses Ken finds in Vancouver's laneways or Vancouver Island dumps. These he builds into sculptures that pretty wittily dig at society and its often warped ideas and sensibilities.

Ken has by far one of the most interesting and bizarre studios I have ever been in... The City of Vancouver really should turn it into a museum.

Dirty Welder Girl

'Dirty Welder Girl' 24"x18" Oil on canvas

A portrait of fellow artist Melanie Davies, an old sculptor friend from way back. She is "dirty" as she had been "metal-bashing" one of her steel sculptures and is covered in steel scale and clouds of soot.

This is actually the second version of a portrait of her. The first iteration, which I painted over a decade ago, was a piece that I had never really been very happy with... so I used that as a starting point and painted another. Luckily I also still have a pile of drawings that I made at the time (although stupidly I did them on thin cheap coloured paper... I'm never going to do that again), so it wasn't too hard revisiting this image.

'Men I Know' part 4

'Sean' 24½"x18½" Oil on canvas

One more in the series of paintings of 'Men I Know'. This one is of Sean (otherwise known as 12 Midnite).

An artist and musician who specialises in "low-brow" pop culture, particularly the sleazier, more brightly coloured, loud, and slightly damp corners of Americana.

Flowers

'Flowers in a Glass Vase' 10"x8" Oil on board

A small oil of a bunch of flowers that I painted one night by artificial light. I don't often work on board, much preferring canvas, but at this tiny scale boards are far more practical.

It reminds me of a lecture about still-lives at college in which the tutor finished off by stating: "Don't trust anyone who doesn't like flowers! They have no appreciation of beauty... and are probably psychopaths." It was a weird thing to say, but is sort-of true.

'Men I Know' part 3

'Rob' 24½"x18½" Oil on canvas

Another oil brunaille, this time of my friend Robert Lutener. A very erudite and charming man able to quote large chunks of Greek literature, although with a "gruff" facade... but once passed that, he's a big-hearted softie.

The Punk Poet of Pender Island

'Bruce' 50"x40" Oil on canvas

A portrait of Pender Island's infamous (and much loved) Bruce Butcher.

Bruce is a "local character", as anyone who has attended any of his poetry performances will attest. He is a fixture of Browning Harbour, living on his converted fishing boat the 'New Rosa', where he floats about enjoying the local wildlife.

This painting took far too long to complete, partly due to being shelved half-way through for over a year, and to some extent as a result of the massed ranks of conifers.

Sadly the photo is a bit poor, there was a thunderous down-pour outside that altered the light... somewhat appropriate given the theme.

Painting The Louvre

'Pavillon de Flore' 9½x4½" oil on panel

On a recent visit to my parents' in Oxford I found this old painting that I made when I was 18 or 19 (I think just 19).

It was done on the spot in Paris on a trip that I made with my friend the painter Donald Short. I remember that while we were painting we were both swarmed by hordes of Japanese tourists. It is pretty small as it had to be transportable as were carting around quite a bit of painting equipment between us.

It was a trip that we financed by painting a double-decker bus as a playbus for ASDA supermarkets. The stay in Paris was unbelievably cheap, we stayed in a brothel (which is another story) and kept on being stopped by the police... well we were slightly "dodgy" looking art students after all.

The painting is of the Pavillon de Flore (a section of the Palais du Louvre, built in 1607) and the Pont Royal. During the French Revolution this pavilion, which is really an extension of the Grande Gallerie, was the home of the infamous Committee of Public Safety.