Portrait of a boy

Portrait of a boy connects with ‘Bums and mad dogs‘, a childhood theme. Recently I determined to paint a mad dog and draw a bum onto galvanised steel, using art school skills; without fertiliser paste. A child’s vision has been refined. This assemblage contemplates the disturbed boy who needed to paint such things.

The process of visualisation takes time. Cadged from building refurbishment, a hot water tank mouldered in an outbuilding before I began using it.

Two others helped; Kit and Chris contributed their thoughts. Kit dis-assembled the object, carefully cutting along its edges. We agreed the rivets are an important feature.

Chris suggested inserting a 40mm canon shell (another objet trouve) into an aperture ripped through the steel. Easier said than done, I did this by walloping the shell with a nine pound sledge hammer.

One facet of the tank presented a circle of bolts around a ‘port hole’, suggesting a maritime air. Within this I set a conventionally painted portrait of myself as a seven year old boy. Based on a photo my father took using a ‘Box Brownie’, it belies the flinching kid I became.

Basil (my father) had poor eyesight. His outlook was myopic. If you observed him playing the piano, rolling through each stave in a boss-eyed, manic fashion, you got a curious vision of a man who somehow compromised his intelligence.

As the Vietnam war gathered momentum, many British people were poor. The Americans helped re-build Europe through the Marshall plan – in the meantime we were busy paying off the lend-lease agreement (armaments loan) we took from them. In a post-war World, occupying the moral high-ground with an empty pantry seems scant reward for taking a stance against ‘radical evil’.

Even if rationing ended in1954, food wasn’t always in abundance. My parents would make us eat stale bread and left-overs from previous meals. On one occasion my dad forced me to eat bubble and squeak – a hideous compote of old veg, mash and onions fried in lard. The smell of it made me retch. I fended off his aggression and went to bed, crying and hungry – having spat out the poison he was trying to ram down my throat in the name of thrift.

The photo Basil took may have been a romantic vignette in his eyes, but reveals my mistrust. By placing ‘Portrait of a boy’ in a ‘port-hole’ it is given it a nautical setting. What ship is he on? the Ticonderoga? A stowaway perhaps.

Like Ned Kelly’s defences, armour blocks ordnance. The whole thing has an industrial feel; there is a contrast of Venetian red rust and blue galvanised steel.

Creating ‘Portrait of a boy’ from such grainy reference was a challenge. Like most paintings, it could be further worked, but there was a deadline for studio1.1 It’s tough, looking on the developing boy and an already messed-up relationship between him and his father. However, that’s the sort of thing painting/art demands of anyone who engages with it over time.

Weighing 12kg, (as much as an M60 machine-gun), this assemblage was created during the final days of 2024. It measures 17.5 x 30 x 7 inches; consisting of galvanised steel, oil paint on canvas and a 40mm shell. It has been selected for ‘This Year’s Model ’25, part one’ at studio1.1 gallery in London, where it is now on show.

The mixed show opens on January the 9th and runs until February the 1st. If you are further interested please leave details on the contact form below.

Thanks to: Chris, Dave, Kit, Alex & Vicky, Ben & Debs