Dividing

By Paul D Robertson

 

Oils, acrylics, on canvas. 220 x 86cms.

$3100.00

      

 

  

OK well hey, for a start this is an old work not new, and i KNOW it really IS contemporary art. I have been known to do such things, and I did it when I was still at university after all.

Initially I hated this piece so much that I poured turpentine all over it and was about to see what would happen if I let it burn for a while when one of my lecturers caught me.

I still hated it and actually SLEPT ON IT at one point. There was a reason apart from to say that I had done it - I was staying overnight painting at the university studios and there were no couches left to sleep on. The piece being sort of the right size, it seemed like a good idea and I placed the edges on two sturdy easels. Reasonably comfy actually.

Subsequesntly I scrubbed out all of the opaque image leaving the basic shape of the figure I had started with. Then I found this GREAT paint that I cannot seem to find again - a translucent but saturated red. I went over most of it following the shapes and then varnished the whole thing.

 

    
       
I nearly sold it at my last show - this guy came back to look at it four times before changing his mind finally. He talked to me about it extensively and even got me to CHANGE some of it (still can't believe I did that), before the exhibition was over and I never heard from him again. I still have his mobile number but have never been able to call him back. Sigh. I think it hangs at my father's house but I am not sure as I have not been there for a while because it is in the country and I am afraid of trees.  
 
               
   
    This is the sketch upon which the larger piece was based - it is in my journal from that year. The journal is a mass of writings and drawings and it is mostly covered in different colours of paint.