Here's some half painted collaboration paintings my friend Charles sent me to work on. We've known each other twenty years now. We met the same year I founded The Other Muswell Hill Stuckists art group, 2006. Charles founded the original Stuckism group in 1999 with another of my painting partners, Billy Childish. Billy and I collaborate paintings under the name Heckel's Horse. Heckel's Horse have done 200 or so paintings over the last thirteen years. Charles and I, under the name Jonthom have done a lot less. Charles and I are also two thirds of Jonronthom with Ron Throop @ronthroop Ron and I are Jonron when we paint together at Black Ivory in my house in Muswell Hill, London. Ron has flown over from America a couple of times, once with his wife Rose. Ron and Rose collaborate on paintings together too. But for now, as far as collaboaration paintings are concerned, I'm just working on Jonthom's. Here's one of the latest batch of seven, pre-me-working-on-it:
The first collaboration paintings Charles and I did together were a set of three or four on double primed cardboard. Must have been about ten or fifteen years ago. Like these new ones we're doing, we worked on them separately. I did my painting alone at Black Ivory, he did his parts alone at his house. I have two of them and assume Charles has the others. Here's one of the two I have:
The initial plan was to start working on the new Jonthon paintings this weekend, as the weather's too wet to do The Camden Market Free Art Man but I got side-tracked with another series of crypto-social paintings on 12 inch LP's. Charles and my painting does weave together as seemlessly as in the Heckel's Horse and Jonron paintings It's more like two cogs interlocking that are spinning in opposite directions. Equally as natural and effortless though. If it's wet next week, I''ll hopefully have some progress to report then.
Three things side by side is a common theme for Charles.
Charles is a puzzle of greatness. Funny how you were saying in our Black Ivory podcast that you haven’t seen him in a while, and then poof! Seven paintings wind up at your door:)