I remember having candyfloss for the first time at a fair that
visited once a year. It was exciting when the
Blocksages Football Club car park started to fill up
with trucks bringing the speedway, dodgems, waltzer
and big wheel. We lived nearby over a double-fronted shop my mum ran and you
knew the fair had arrived when slightly-scary rough dudes appeared in the shop for sandwiches and cigarettes. I remember one of the grizzly men
throwing a lit cigar off the roaring speedway, running over to it and having a suck. It's surprising the
treacly gob of spit didn't make me sick never mind the acrid taste. But the
fair dude had looked so cool.
Ironically it was an American
dentist called William Morrison who is best known for
developing the candyfloss machine (he called it Fairy Floss.) It can’t be wholesome -
about 99% is sugar and the remaining 1% is colouring and flavouring. Sugar is heated up so it liquefies then it is spun through tiny
holes. It turns solid in minute strands and is mostly air. I can't think of
having a candy floss at anywhere else than a fair
or carnival.
This painting is based on a small
photograph I cut out of a newspaper (see photo.) I used it as a bookmark for
months and when I finished the book I thought I’d better have a go at
the painting, or something similar anyway. Here it is. The colours are too
vivid for my liking (never been keen on garish colours.) It all came together
quite quickly (reflected in the quality). I’m afraid the serving woman looks like a
trans-gender man who had yet to lose his nuts to the axe. This painting will
join the others in the attic.