Thursday 19 December 2013

More Window Action - Mandela, Lou Reed and the Baby Jesus !

The death of Nelson Mandela resulted in worldwide comment and commemoration - including this painting on the inside of our studio window. I didn't want to see Lou off so soon, so the look is overlapping posters on a Camden wall.
I first became aware of Mandela and South African politics in the early eighties, possibly as a direct result of this truly marvellous song by The Specials. Take a look at www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgcTvoWjZJU



 
On the other window I've done a painting for Christmas based on the central figures from Caravaggio's marvellous and inspiring and intriguing and emotionally moving ( or is it just me ? ) Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence of 1609. The original is lost - presumably irretrievably - having been cut out of its frame in the Oratory of S. Lorenzo in Palermo in 1969. Again, it's whacked onto the inside of the glass in acrylics and close up is quite crude but the impact from a distance seems to work well enough.