Friday 8 May 2015

Magnificent Obsessions

The other week, Hazel and I went to see an exhibition at the Barbican entitled 'Magnificent Obsessions'. It featured the collections of objects that artists acquire both for their work and pleasure.
I was particularly interested in seeing the dolls and puppets gathered together by Peter Blake and the Indian Miniature paintings of Howard Hodgkin. There was something particularly bizarre about Andy Warhol's obsession with objects. Almost every day he went shopping for possessions but when he got them home, he hardly looked at them again.
Well, I am not quite so bad as that! I only ever buy objects which I can use in my paintings. Sometimes it will be for a cultural reference, as in my collection of 'Mexican Day of the Dead' objects for the painting 'Offrenda' and other times it will be buying something I once had as a child. For example, a Muffin the Mule puppet which I then used in the painting 'David's Journey'. I have since bought two more versions of Muffin the Mule. Maybe that is the beginning of a 'Magnificent Obsession'?!
You can see these paintings (and the objects when you visit) on the
 PRINTS FOR SALE page of my website. 

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