Lovers Looking Out

A few years ago I was on a coach tour of Torquay and there were trips out to Dartmouth and Brixham (I wrote in my diary that one journey took us down “Slapper’s Hill”.) There was an optional boat trip on the River Dart that sailed people passed celebrities homes. I would have liked to have seen Greenway, Agatha Christie’s house, but I dodged the trip. I’d already been on a boat that holiday and, turning slowly green with seasickness, I’d neared the point of filling the emergency ASDA bag. So no boat rides for me…had a stroll around Dartmouth with an audio book instead.

Not being a lover of strong sunlight I sat in on a shaded kerb and had a coffee and a sandwich. A man and woman sat on a bench in front of me consuming the view. I took a photograph thinking I’d paint them one day. I didn’t paint them but still did one of lovers looking out on a scene and this is it. It’s borrowed from a Vivian Maier photograph though I’ve added the amber sky and rooftops below. Vivian Maier worked for about forty years as a nanny in America in the 1940s and 50s. She led a quietly obsessive life taking more than 150,000 photographs during her lifetime. She hoarded many small possessions and kept them in storage. When she couldn’t pay the bills her stuff was sold at auction and tens of thousands of photos documenting American street life came to light.

I’m not keen on this painting. It was drying in the spare bedroom where the clothes dry and I glanced at it one day and realised it was the sixth-form student/amateur sewage-on-a-canvas stuff you in arty cafes and library exhibitions. I forced myself to finish it, daubing in the city below then signing it off. A few days passed and when I glanced at it again it wasn’t so pathetic (must have been in a dark mood when I first saw it - stock market down, HIV had returned, bra straps digging in again.)

I almost finished this painting in the first sitting. Glad it’s finished, glossed and gone into the attic.

The doctor doesn’t look impressed….

This painting is based on this Vivien Maier photo…

If struggling have a treat…

Adding the woman’s hair…

Adding the beacon…

Beacon added but the women can’t take their eyes off the hot hunk porn…