Misty Mountain Hop

**More photos to come - or Follow progress on Instagram here  --->  @losdave

It only seems like ten minutes since I was painting the 'snug' wall at Southsea Coffee Co. in Osborne Road with Midge. (You'll remember the dangling cats from 'Cats Cradle'), and here I am back again, this time working on the main wall in the café. I'll confess, the very first time I went in and saw this wall I thought to myself "Mmmm, I'd really like to put a big landscape on that...", and I've been covetous of it ever since.

Well, good things come to those that wait and being asked by Martyn and Tara to paint this wall made for a cracking start to the new year. To be honest, it's going to be hard to beat as the highlight of the year for me, and it's barely the end of January. We had a couple of cursory chats to kick around ideas of what they wanted, and I was left to come up with a few sketches.

The composition of the landscape here is based on two actual places; The Ring of Brodgar (or Brogar) is a Neolithic henge and stone circle in Orkney, Scotland, and Long Meg and Her Daughters is a Bronze Age stone circle near Penrith in Cumbria, North West England. The final composition combines elements of these two separate sketches and a few tweaks made 'on the hoof', as I was painting.

For a very long time, I've been itching to do something with ancient archaeology; standing stones, stone circles, Mesolithic and neolithic structures. The period fascinates me. It relates to the idea of where the original impulse comes from to decorate ourselves and our surroundings; to make 'art', to communicate and tell stories, to record events, to remember and respect the past, something deeply, deeply primal. How did this aspect evolve as part of our consciousness? 

And this might also mark a watershed in terms of my art. The landscapes that I've painted have always tended to remain unpopulated. Uninhabited wildernesses, pre-human lands shaped only by weathering and geology. These archaeologies mean I can add traces of habitation without obvious direct references to actual people. Stone monuments refer to 'us' rather than 'me'. They are both in and of the landscape - and if you've ever visited any of these sites**, they have a strong sense of 'other-worldliness'. It's a huge psychological leap to understand that these structures were built by the same people as us - our ancestors, and that their culture is as embedded in our DNA as these massive stones are embedded in our landscapes.

It's difficult for me to express just how much it means to me to be able to put this particular subject on this particular wall at this particular time. My deep heartfelt appreciation and respect for Tara and Martyn and the whole Southsea Coffee crew hardly begins to cover it. Thanks guys. XD

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** No! Stonehenge doesn't count! Not in its current state - frankly my dear, it's all just too damned "Hollywood"! They might just as well rename it Disneyhenge...

Spread Your Wings

Fresh out of the box and off the blocks is this commissioned piece for a friend who does Batala drumming. This fellah is simpler and subtler than some of the others I've done. Less fussy. The movement and character are still there in the dynamics of the wings on the down beat, the head pulling slightly back ready to throw his weight forward and the position of that foot pushing off from the can.

It took a while to find the balance point on this one, but like always, it's free standing, not fixed down. The bird is just resting on the can, and if you look carefully you can see that back foot rests on just a single claw - the sort of neat detailing trick I like to put in that people generally miss. The sort of details that when you notice, you think to yourself "Hang on a minute, how does that work because the centre of balance should be there!" But these are the sort of fine details that make the difference for me, between 'good enough' and 'nice!'

Another is the choice of can. If you've seen Batala Samba Reggae drummers perform, you'll know they can whip up a storm. Their colours are black and red triangles and stripes on a white ground, and some of the design and colours on this original Belton can neatly reflect that.

With all of these commissions, I do love it when someone takes a piece and turns it into something more personal. One of the most successful was one of the 'Tape Head' birds that I made a couple of years ago. For this, the punter had asked for a specific tape - a cassette of 'Nas - The Lost Tapes'. Between us we were searching for months for a copy, and then one arrived from the States. Brand new, still in its plastic wrapper, it had cost him £20. The idea of the 'Tape Heads' series is that the bird is literally chewing up the tape. One foot holding it down and tape pulled out and threaded through the birds beak. The thought of doing this to a brand new, 'vintage' tape freshly imported from the US added a frisson of excitement to the project! But the best was yet to come. 

On delivery of his bird, this punter had gone on Eb*y and scored himself an original '80's boombox and mounted the bird on top with the cassette in the open tape deck! Perfect! I was absolutely blown away by this guys' commitment. I want more of this sort of thing!

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