THE COLLECTION

Acrylic on Canvas

98cmx70cm

1996

When I was really into my Surrealist state of mind, in the late sixties early seventies, ending with "MAYBE TOMORROW" winning the 1974 Benson & Hedges Art Award, I collected a lot of Royal Doulton etc. which I used in this painting. I was going to do a large painting inside a grand palace with tables each piled high with crockery, clocks, books, statues, musical instruments, flowers etc. I piled up what I had in the studio and took a couple of photos. I wanted something light and bright with lots of texture. I had dozens of little oil bottles filled with many colours and shades of colours and had a great time squeezing the paint onto the canvas. I had to have the canvas flat on the table or it would have dripped off the canvas. Anyway the first day I started doing the big Doulton vase I was very pleased. The next morning I had hundreds of blue mouse prints all over the canvas and furniture. After that I learnt to keep the paintings covered.  (From the Collector Series).