The Bigger The Better
Having been working in a confined / ridiculously small space for quite some time now, I have long fantasized over working at very large scale. It was no wonder then, that when recently visiting a friend (socially distanced of course) and he mentioned he wanted to get a mural painted in his garden, I leapt at the opportunity.
I re-channeled all my dormant recruitment skills and used the tried and tested method of copious amounts of alcohol to seal the deal, and before the night was through, I had the money wired to my account and a verbal contract to paint 1,000 blue penises on my mates wall. Result!
When the haze had finally cleared the next morning, the enormity of the task dawned on me and I felt mixture of extreme excitement and more than a little nervous energy at the prospect ahead. In the cold light of day we both agreed that 1,000 penises was not the way forward.
My Clients' are good friends and I knew them well. They live in Brixton and both have a strong connection to Cornwall, so this context was important. They are also a fun couple and I wanted to paint something positive that reflected their personalities as well relating to it’s location.
I decided I would paint a party scene with four main characters strutting their stuff amongst a medley of iconography and symbols relating to the spirit of Brixton with a hint of Cornwall. The colour of the piece itself was also a nod to Cornwall and I believe it was this element where Joe (my Client) focussed his anxiety’s. We must have gone through about 20 different blues before we found the one that really captured “the spirit of Cornwall” and he was happy! In case you are curious we went for Little Greene’s Blue Verditer, and I am glad he pushed me on it because it’s a great colour and really “pops!”
Joe and Carlotta were keen to press on and I managed to turn around the design in only two days. I loved this way of working as I didn't have too much time to labour over decisions and it ended up being a very instinctive piece that I felt worked well. I like to incorporate text into much of my work and I tend to leave this to the end as it describes the piece and ends up almost writing its self. Joe and Carlotta’s flat looks out on to Brockwell park and this with the imagery led to the title. “The Best Moves This Side Of Brockwell”
I then presented them with the drawing, which fortunately they loved. See below!
So then there was just the small matter of working out how to do it! I had purposely drawn my draft to scale which was a very useful tool and I had a blind faith that it would all come together. In fact once I got started it was pretty smooth although took a little longer than I had promised! in fact almost double the time. I ended up feeling like an unwanted house mate… Although to be fair Joe and Carlotta’s hospitality was second to none and we all had a great time! However this was certainly part of the learning curve in understanding how long these things take!
See below for some shots. The space is quite narrow so I had to stitch a load of pics together.
I absolutely loved doing this and am very proud to have my first large scale work with Joe and Carlotta. It marks a shift in my work where I will now be focussing on larger pieces and I am about to order in some big raw canvasses. The confidence this job has given me instills me with faith I will be able to continue at this scale with more conventional paintings.
I am now selling a limited edition Giclee print of the piece on archival quality paper for £35 + P&P from my website.
I also very keen to do more of these, so if you have a wall you want tarted up, whether it be private or commercial, then please get in touch.
All the best,
David