OK. So these evolved from doodles. I quite often draw a line with a pen and find it beautiful. At a time where i was putting a lot of work into painfully detailed paintings, that still came out kinda ugly, I could do instant speedy doodles which looked much better proportioned. My margins are always full of stickpersons abstracted to different degrees. I dunno why I like 'em. These are my attempts to do things a bit more substantial with them.

Evolution

alkyd on mdf

2006

When Gracia saw my paining Explosion (see below), she decided she wanted one similar, so here it is! It is also about evolution, but instead of concentrating on explosions of diversity, this one concentrates on the graduated nature of evolution. Every new stick I drew differed from one of the existing ones in a single small way. Only the existing sticks I particularly liked were chosen for this, so the theory was the sticks would evolve towards forms I really, really like, but without having been planned that way. This photo was actually taken while the painting was slightly unfinished. I must get another one.

Hilda House

oil on hardboard

1997

In the summer after sixth form and before university. Tim, George, Mark and Graham became the first of my pals to move out of home and get a shared house (called Hilda - ask Katie apparently). So I used to go round there a fair bit, listen to Drum 'n' Bass and all that comes with it. It had a particular atmosphere, being young and everything was new, and Drum 'n' Bass sounded so good then, in a way I can't quite make it now (although I still like it), could be speaker quality. This is my attempt to capture that atmosphere.

In Reverse oil on hardboard 1997	(Evollutionary) Explosion oil on hardboard 1998 (i think)
Hmmm.... What to say? Experimenting with permanent marker for more immediacy. Marker on oil…. Nib gets a bit sticky. Also fades with time. Title and signature in large graffiti-ish writing across the middle: mirror writing – like Leonardo. A variation on that yellow sun face which was a kinda signature before then. Not the greatest.	When evolution comes up with a particularly effective mechanism of doing something new, often you get lots of variations on a the theme all appearing and competing with each other. For example, this happened in when segmentation first appeared and lead to a temporary explosion in the number and diversity of animal species: the assembly of tons of animals with different mix and match segments leading to many potential new body layouts. After a while the fittest combinations out-competed the others and the number and diversity of species returned to a more normal level, with the few most efficient body layouts. So my little abstracted stickmen are the evolutionary explosion after the first appearance of black lines from red circles. I think abi owns this painting.

Last Supper

oil on wood

1998(ish)

Lots of musicians cover old songs in their own style. The idea being to use my very abstracted stickman style to "cover" an old very reallist painting - Leondardo's Last Supper. Andy Warhol also covered this painting, or maybe he remixed it, i didn't know this at the time. I'm an atheist but this story belongs almost as much to art as it does to Christianity now. Maybe you can think of it in the same spirit as the renaissance artists drawing scenes from ancient Greek religion.

 

Untitled oil on canvas board 1998(ish)	Untitled watercolour on paper 1998(ish)