Need

2011

oil on canvas

125 x 84cm

Pete came to visit me in my tiny Enmore flat and with him came this canvas, which he had found in the lane outside. This was a large, dark, abstract, anonymous work, probably discarded by a student who was moving somewhere else. This was not uncommon; the lane was often littered with discarded artworks.

The original found work included a series of impasto circles, which despite being covered by my layers of cover paint continued to be apparent. As the work presented itself these circles appeared to me as scars or jewellery, thereby defining the contours of the face and the neck.

Later, Mick was in my flat and, as we were looking at this work, I told him I was planning to do more work on the body, particularly the arms. He told me not to do that as he liked how he could see the bones, the skeleton within the arms. I sat on this idea for a while. The painting didn’t change after that.