contextual studies

Swimmer ,Eric Ravilious

Pond , Paul Nash

Paul Nash ,Paradise Garden

For as long as I can remember I have had a fascination with ponds , streams and small damp landscapes , wells and small ruins . They are manageable and I feel secure and in control . The sea is like a crowd of new people , maybe like starting art school , the people crash in on you like waves , unpredictable and possibly dangerous .  

Pond , Paul Nash

 “Excuse me, I said. I thought you were a trout stream.
I'm not, she said.” 
― Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America

Your Catfish Friend

If I were to live my life
in catfish forms
in scaffolds of skin and whiskers
at the bottom of a pond
and you were to come by
one evening
when the moon was shining
down into my dark home
and stand there at the edge
of my affection
and think, “It's beautiful
here by this pond. I wish
somebody loved me,”
I'd love you and be your catfish
friend and drive such lonely
thoughts from your mind
and suddenly you would be
at peace,
and ask yourself, “I wonder
if there are any catfish
in this pond? It seems like
a perfect place for them.” 
― Richard Brautigan, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster

Andie Goldsworthy , I like this I like cold damp places

 In my dreams ponds are always dark , deep and often filled with scary things. This is a sea lampery it is a primative many toothed parisite as big as your arm and can be seen at the bottom of the shannon at o briens bridge in may , a scary encounter                                                            
                                                 

I obviously find the church sinister or if not, I think it makes for an interesting painting to do so

I have always been interested in the rituals of the catholic church I was an alter boy these are paintings I did of a may procession I was in aged about five 

FRANK AUERBACH summer landscape .He is somebody who craves order and predictability some of his models have sat for him at the same time on the same day for over 40 years .He also has rituals around the display and selling of his work.Order and ritual are about security. His parents died in the holacaust so his desire for security is understandable , I dont know about mine 

Grason Perry the tomb of the unknown craftsman . This is a narrative supported with a lot of fake antiquities.I like this I collect Greek,Roman and Medieval  antiquities my self. Collecting is a form of control, leading to security 

Chapman Brothers "family collection"This is another fake collection ,this time Mc  Donald figures disguised as tribal fetish figures

part of my collection of Greek & Roman antiquities , the objects have no magic significance to me but i do like that they are very old . I arrange and rearrange them in ways that are plea

sing to my eye

The Green Child was written by Herbert Read , he was an architect , it was his only novel . It tells the story of an English engineer who aids a south american country during a war in the mid 19thC . He becomes president of the country but becomes unsettled so fakes his own death and returns to England , to the Cotswold village he grew up in . It hasnt changed in 40 years except that ,  inexplicably,the millstream has reversed its direction of flow . He then relates the story of the Green Child. Two green children appeared in the village many years ago , they were taken in by the miller who was cruel , the boy died the girl lived . She is now an adult  and our hero rescues her from the miller , they live together but after a time she wishes to return to her own folk . Together they follow the millstream up to its source , a pond. They dive in and enter a cave system where her people live . they live together happily in her society but the engineer notices that as people grow older they withdraw from society find themselves a shelf in a niche where they grow cold and  eventually crystalline , I think they are still in  some way aware but free of desire and ambition and the need for society. I like this idea of shedding energy , i think its called ENTROPYand it comes back around to my idea for an ice chapel