Recently I had some time between commissions to do some personal work. I was waiting on canvas' for my next commission and decided to paint some of my own stuff using larger canvas' that I had.
I started painting this from a photo I had taken in Southend On Sea at around 7am last year on one of the hottest days. At first it was just going to be a strangely lit seaside painting but then I decided I wanted it to be a bit more than that.
I've seen a lot of artists making 'lockdown art' which reflects how people are feeling in these very strange times when COVID19 is killing thousands of people all over the world. A lot of people are painting people in face masks or hospital scenes and there's nothing wrong with that but I wanted to do something a bit different.
So I had this sunny scene, which because it was from so early in the morning there was no one around so it already had a lockdown feel to it but then I wanted to add a sense of impending doom to it, so I added the asteroid and the clown.
Just before lockdown happened, all the idiot locust people stripped all the supermarkets of food and anything useful, not giving a thought to anyone else. This gave a kind of strange 'end of the world' kind of feeling to life, then we went into lockdown and the government was on TV every day giving us briefings and telling us to not go out and how many people had died that day. Now it really did feel like the end of the world.
So in the painting I wanted the idea to be that the way that clown is feeling when he sees the asteroid and drops his beer, is the way I felt when the lockdown happened.
I like the way that it has a cartoony feel to it and he just had to be a clown because clowns are funny and scary at the same time, I like things to have a touch of humour in them even if they are dark.
On the last day of painting when I'd just about finished it, we watched Grayson Perry's Art Club program that I'd taped. He said next weeks topic was pets so I went to try and submit a pet portrait but I was too late and the next topic for submissions was 'Fantasy' so I submitted this. You also had to submit a video so I did and it was a really awkward video, ha!
We'll see what happens, even if he gets to see my painting and it makes him chuckle, that will be worth it, I love Grayson's laugh.
Ok back to painting, Hope you are well!
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