R.L.S ( restless leg syndrome) The meeting of various things. It began with the title ‘Island Years’. I have used the cover of a book with this title ( by...
The meeting of various things. It began with the title ‘Island Years’. I have used the cover of a book with this title ( by Frank Fraser Darling) so many times. Then I saw a programme on telly called ‘Island Years’ about Island record label, and then I picked up a book by Robert Louis Stevenson called Island Landfalls.
A fantasy on islands. Something to do with Desert Island discs, Island records, Robert Louis Stevenson, Gauguin, the south seas, the Caribbean, Frank Walter, Volcanic activity, outfits for travelling. A wooden hut in the Caribbean, that will do me fine. I build it myself, no planning permission needed for this in a painting. You can build what you want. A bed, a two ring stove, a table and two chairs, I will leave the paintings outside for the weather to do its bit. The ‘ground’ of the painting is a gold covered book. This reflectiveness is alluring and off-putting as a starting point, a beast to be tamed. Everything is tonally close in the painting. The figure is out there on its own, a hesitant figure. The figure is Stevenson, whose sartorial style I like very much and wish I could carry off myself. I return to Robert Louis Stevenson almost every day. He has mystery but. in a way, not. There’s a pleasing lack of art - a style that serves a story but without ceremony. It’s what Calvino and Borges admired in him.