3 Cocks

Commission for Spit Jacks Restaurant, Lauriston Road, Hackney, London E9

click here to visit Spitjacks Facebook page

Hoping to get some pictures soon, of the restaurant when its open & full of happy eaters

(It was closed when these were taken)

These cockerels were far bigger than anything I've done before, and, to be honest, 

I was a little nervous. 

This is my try at creating a stencil print version of a sketch by the artist, Guy Denning,

who drew it as a preliminary for his painting,

"We Shall Be Hypocrites"

click for bigger 

 

You can see Guy Denning's sketch at

 http://denningdrawing.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_01_archive.html 

 Its a picture that I return to, time & again,
 just to 'feel' it one one more time. 

The sketch is in charcoal & conté crayon, & doesn't exactly lend itself to spray paint, but I wanted a 'hand-made' version of this picture rather than the photo I had. 

Guy had sold the sketch before I first saw it.

Also, I just wanted to see if I could do it at all.  

I'm just pleased to have captured something of her expression. 

Anyway, Guy Denning's work is special, check it out here ... 

http://www.guydenning.org

Early Morning 
29th September 2011
Lower Dowdeswell, Gloucestershire, UK

... all sorts of ways

& then this one that I played with on the computer, trying to work out my colours ...

"Moonlight Ride"

photographically altered spray paint & stencil

(a colour scheme for tomorrow, straight out of the past)

"Mukanya"

No Man's Slave

stencils & spraycans, on card

"Crow"

above the void

"soul adventurer"

"over the canyon"

1st spray

spray paint, freehand & stencilled

Canada Common

A little (A4) cut made really as a test for a bigger one to follow.

This picture is a celebration of / elegy for the people & lifestyle that came to be known as 

New Age Travellers/Hippies/Medieval Brigands.

The crazed times, the laughs, the freedom, the horror, the self reliance, the learning-about-life.

I was only on the fringes of this, but it has touched my whole life. 

This picture is from the days of harassment & evictions, that followed the years of ease,

and is one I've wanted to make for a little while now

Live & Let Live

Andraste!

as always ... aerosol spray paint, freehand & stencilled

"The Queen of Mbira"

I'm going to meet Stella Chiweshe this week ... see her play & sing, and then get to play mbira with her. 

She was my introduction to mbira. I am so excited!

A friend bought me the Ndizvozvo 12" in the early 90s. It features Stella Chiweshe & The Earthquake Band. It made a BIG impact on me.

So, yesterday, in her honour, I cut a stencil & made a picture

mbira dza vadzimu 

(... the voice of the ancestors)

spraypainted pictures of the musical instrument that I love the best.  

I hope you can hear it too.

Dambatsoko

bottle-top buzzers

test spray

nyuchi (means 'bee' in Shona)

this is an image of the mbira 

that I made for myself recently