Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Green Man Paintings






In about 1996 I painted a series of green people in inks, watercolour and pencil, the first of which was based on the Norwich Green Man, which is the gold coloured image at the beginning of the previous post, unfortunately I do not have a scan of this painting at the moment. There were others in the series, but these are the only three I can find now. The first painting here was my second attempt at the green man and is of the leaf mask variety and not based on any carvings. The other two were also painted around this time. Depictions tend to be of male characters usually, so I thought it would be good to also try a female form.

Instead of using an airbrush to apply sprayed paint I opted for the cheaper method which is to use a spray diffuser, a device used mainly for the application of fixative onto a pastel drawing. With a bit of practise some quite fine results can be achieved, the drawbacks being that they have a tendency to suddenly drip or fling a big drop of ink at the paper which then has to be carefully dabbed away. The other drawback is that you tend to go a bit blue in the face from all that blowing. As of December 2011 all three of these paintings are for sale, if you are interested I have a contact email on my profile page here or leave me a comment instead and I'll email you. All the prices are still very reasonable.

Anyway there they are, I'll be back with some more photo's again soon.



10 comments:

nina said...

Thanks John, these are wonderful! Full-of-Wonder. I see your style coming through based on the drawings you put up last fall. I like your work very, very much.

nobody said...

Thanks John. Very good. Did you make a living out of this? Surely.

And airbrushes, eh? God, those were the days. I still have my olympus in storage somewhere. And the spatter cap, sure enough. Then of course there was the ever faithful toothbrush loaded with white paint for making starfields with. Ciao Ciao.

Anonymous said...

Cheers Nina, ah yes I had plenty of wonder when I painted these, I used to paint and draw a lot but not so much now, though the world still has plenty of wonder for me. So much beauty and so much ugliness, it reminds me of the observation of the nice teeth on the dead dog. Actually I think I should explain that one as it's a good story if you don't know it and it will save time if I do it myself so...back in a mo.

One bright day Isa (Jesus), may peace be upon him, was walking with his disciples down a narrow alley, when they happened upon a decaying dead dog.

The disciples promptly covered their mouths and noses and hurried up to shuffle past the corpse.

One disciple commented on the maggots
A second disciple mourned his lost appetite
A third gaped at the dogs exposed ribs.

Isa paused and said:

"Did you see that dog's lovely pearly white teeth?"

Anonymous said...

Cheers Nobody, first off i'd just like to state that I am not a member of the CIA or MI5, MI6 or even MFI for that matter, in case anyone was wondering.

No, I didn't make a living out of this. Unfortunately it turned out that although I can paint a bit I am a rubbish salesman, that is life, as the French would have us have it. On the plus side doing lots of badly paid jobs has been quite good, as I learnt plenty about myself and others along the way, which was nice.

I still enjoy "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face" once in a while though, and not all of them end up as starfields I can tell you. Oh well, back to the maggot moving.

word verification: Butylatedhydroxytoluene

nobody said...

Hey John,

I just saw a rather obscure movie from 1984 called "Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" with Sean Connery in it. It's obscurity is well deserved since it's really dreadful. But interestingly Connery plays Merlin and he is decked out as the Green Man. Had I watched it all I suspect that there'd have been more than a few interesting references in there. If it comes on you might want to check it out if for no other reason than Connery's costume. Ciao ciao.

Anonymous said...

Cheers Nobody
Thanks for that, it's always interesting to see these things turn up in films and I have not heard of that one, I shall look out for it and see if I can find a picture at least. I do remember an old seventies film version of Gawain and the Green Knight, a cheesy old film but good to see that these stories have enough power to turn up again once in a while.

Anonymous said...

Wow, that first one is especially extremely beautiful. I love the way the flows of lines and forms are articulated.
Reminds me of the hair job on Robert Downey Junior in the movie "Fur."
Also reminds me of a commercial for frozen vegetables in my childhood featuring a character who is a "Jolly Green Giant."

Anonymous said...

Cheers Brian and thanks.
Fur eh? I'll have to look out for that. I don't really watch many films or keep up with it all really though I do know the Jolly Green Giant and he is still around.
Cheers for now.

TitusL said...

Such amazing Green Men, brilliant paintings, I thought you might like my machinima film The Tree Of Life,
which features the Green Man as Guardian Of The Sacred Tree,
Bright Blessings ~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI_vTmnPJv0

john said...

Thanks very much Celestial Elf. I'll have a look at the film in a bit, I'd like to see that. Bright Blessing to you too.