I was waiting for a bus and sat next to me was a builder reading a porno....My studio is getting pretty busy in preparation for July. It actually looks like there is a painter using it at the moment.
I had found that what little recent work i had done lacked ambition. I had become stifled by "But will someone buy it" and "does this show that i can paint". Overthinking everything and producing nothing, treating canvas and paint like there was no more left in the world. Thinning down oils like a miser.
This of course was bullshit. After losing out on a bursary i decided to stop being such a pussy and invest in myself. The paintings to the left were done on Wallpaper lining paper. Stretched across the studio wall and stapled on, then primed.
This method instantly eliminated the fear/hold that canvas had over me. I also nipped out and bought a big stash of porno mags.
The thing about Porno mags is that they are a real thing, an actual item. Where as online porn isn't. Theres also something decidedly retro about the porn mag. With a world of absolute filth at your fingertips for free on the internet its a pretty obsolete modus operandi for visual pleasure. But maybe I digress.
It's mainly the glossy images and that "sleazy" aspect that i am interested in for my paintings. That dirty little secret, feel. Something to be hidden. I want to take that feeling and splash it across walls, make others feel it too. Figuratively by which i mean "figurative art" Your not going to get better source material or more accurate depictions of the human body than a porno mag.
