I found these paintings in my attic today as I was clearing out. Six old but unprocessed paintings I suspect were finished just before my last trip to Pattaya in Thailand.
This is the problem I have when going abroad. If I don’t finish everything I’m working on before I leave, any half done projects get lost because when I return there’s a whole new batch of work to start on. Here’s a photo of them before they were mounted on cardboard.
As they were done at Billy's they would have been part of the Chatham Dockyard Video Diary series. The playlist is on this link, but the latest episode on show is misleading, as it's of me at home complaining about some nonsense written about me in a biography about Billy. Saying I make virtually no artistic contribution to the Heckel's Horse paintings. This still bothers me now, but I have a series of work in the pipeline that will help expose the truth. I was thinking about this the other day. The book’s To Ease My Troubled Mind – The Authorised Unauthorised History of Billy Childish. If I remember rightly, the book says that I’m in the studio, but it’s only after I leave that the subject of Heckel’s Horse comes up. Pretty convenient. You’d think if there was any interest in talking about the collaboration paintings Billy and I do together, it would be mentioned while I’m there. Not, wait for me to leave the room then start talking about us. Passing strange, I think. But who knows? As was made sure, I wasn’t there. The episode with the six paintings in the photo below will probably be episode 38.
The attic clearing is part of a general house tidy up as my sister and nephew are visiting tomorrow to celebrate what would have been my mum's 85th birthday. She had the same birthday as Henry VIII. I remember her 50th being the same day as his 500th in 1991. The attic’s looking much better now and it means I can move all the junk in my studio up there and finally get round to finishing the next batch of Jonthom paintings and set up the music gear for the new Edgeworth Band songs that currently only exist on my phone. The Jonthom paintings are collaborations I make with Charles Thomson. The Heckel’s Horse paintings, just mentioned, are collaborations I make with Billy Childish. Charles and Billy founded Stuckism in 1999. Jonron paintings are collaborations I make with Ron Throop. Ron and I are currently founding Free Art Frees Art although are yet to demonstrate one of its key tasks, being financially sustainable for the artist.
Tonight's post though is about five paintings of cats and one of candles. Acrylic paintings I did at Billy’s studio on A3 size sketchbook paper. PVA glued onto cardboard rescued from the streets. Individually hand stamped red lettering. Advertism on the cardboard frame I painted black and tied together with jute string. On the backs are pages cut out from the booklet I give out at The Camden Market Free Art Man.
Ron Throop @ronthroop and I are doing a three painting a day stint. I’ll get started on mine Tuesday as this weekend’s fully booked and I’m at Billy’s on Monday, as has been the case virtually every Monday for the last thirteen years, apart from a one year enforced break during covid. I won’t count the paintings I do at Billy’s in the three I’m doing alongside Ron. I want the daily three to be regular Edgeworth Johnstone paintings. Not Heckel’s Horse Jr, not my recent Camden Market Free Art Man flat colour cartoony pop art, not the @offgridlife inspired Offgridlife Claymation series I’m in the middle of, but like these six paintings I discovered today. Loosely painted compositions off the top of my head that aren’t aimed at any existing series or preconceived themes. It’s been a while since I’ve made any paintings like this.
Ron’s sticking to a set size, 24 x 18inch. I’ll stick to 12 inch square double primed LP record sleeves. Some other old work surfaced today during the clear up. These four Gridismjr prints...
and a hundred or so half done paintings of the Nirvana Nevermind cover. The baby swimming after the dollar bill, but in my paintings the dollar bill is replaced with a QR code to my blog. The Advertism never stops. The stencils I cut for the Nirvana pocket size paintings turned up, which has all moved this work further up my to do list now everything needed is easily to hand. The Nirvana work was so popular at Camden I did a couple of days dedicated to just this theme.
I have similar plans for the crypto social sites I use, but don’t have enough work yet.
