I started painting a portrait of Warhol. I decided to paint him as he has such emblematic features, haircut and pose, that I thought they would be easily translatable through painting as an experiment. His reduction of shapes through the use of colour and lines, the immediacy of painting are also what lead me to use him as a sitter. I was trying to create borders with ways of panting.
For this work I was experimenting with complementary colours of wool and background.
Whilst making this painting I was listening to Mark Bradford podcast about his show at Hauser and Wirth Gallery on Saville Row. One of the things he was talking about that stuck with me was a reference to the three headed dog who keeps the gates of hell, that he was using as an allegory for border keeping in contemporary times.
A following podcast was with artist Peter Doig talking and using both words “homely and crude” to talk about his paintings. I thought that it was extremely interesting in relation to what I was trying to achieve.
MC's Blog 