Return of the Crucial Three

Returning to the subject matter of the ‘Homepride Fred-the flour-grader’ compositions, this one again featuring an arrangement of all three of the iconic figures in the collection, arranged against a ground of a hand-drawn-and-painted approximation of a Dekoplus fabric design of 1960s vintage that might be said to make a nod toward the similar device of the representation of bold wallpaper patterns employed by Patrick Caulfield as an element of the complex visual language of his paintings: the ghost of Euan Uglow always haunts the painting of the ‘Freds’, of course.

As always, the play of natural light over the plastic surfaces of the objects and the manner in which fleeting little ‘pings’ of reflected colour occur, with the challenge of recording them, is a constant delight in the process and reason enough to continue mining this particular seam of pictorial interest.  Additionally, a little light research has unearthed the discovery that the Homepride ‘Fred’ character – advertising icon to-be – was ‘born’, being the idea of Bobs Geers and Gross, in 1964, the very year of my own birth, so that feels like another connection, however tenuous and arbitrary.

‘Three Homepride Freds and Dekoplus Design’

oil and graphite on canvas/16″ x 20″/April 2019

[detail]

[detail]

[detail]

The finished painting on the easel in front of the composition,

as painted

And Then There Were Two...

Following the previous entry, the latest painting to be brought to a conclusion features a different composition of the same subject matter and context, with but two of the collected 'Homepride Fred' figures rather than three and a slightly more  'measured'/geometrical approach applied to the representation of the patterned wallpaper and consideration of the placement of the objects in relation to (the figure to the left might be observed to be 'pinned' at the shoulders within the confines of an aspect of the pattern, for example), all being a bit more 'Uglowian' in conception, perhaps, which returns us to the original image to feature the Freds dating from almost two years ago.

Again, the active observation of the play of natural light upon the surface of the objects, those fleeting, momentary 'flashes' that enliven the whole set-up, describing aspects of their form and nature, is the motivating factor in engaging with such a challenge and the hoped-for result is a convincing pictorial representation of such, a record of the environmental activity, the time spent looking and painting.

'Two Freds and Retro Wallpaper'

oil on canvas/16 x 20"/March - April 2019

[detail]

[detail]

The finished painting on the easel, in position as observed and painted

During a little light workplace research, hoping to find suitable examples of wallpaper design that might provide grist to the creative mill and extend the project, it was something of a delight to find an example of a ‘Fred’ amongst the pages of a rather fine book: