"Old Master Erotix"

hen I was a child growing up in the National Gallery, I was always depressed by the number of "horror" paintings there were around me, from crucifixions to beheadings to disembowelments, ugh, really macabre and sinister. When I grew up, and came to know most of the museums of the world, I found this to be the case in every museum. I was also a little brought down by the number of mediocre works there were on all museum walls, given credibility only by the Master-works surrounding them. Wouldn�t it be marvellous, I thought, to have a museum that contained only the greatest art in the world, and even happy works. Well, I am obviously limited as to how many paintings I can do to create my own "National Gallery," but I decided on twenty one. Yes, I thought, I will repaint - not copy, exactly but repaint - my twenty one favourite masterpieces amongst the world�s most famous paintings. I would add a little erotic humour, but I would paint them with all the respect, even reverence, I genuinely have towards them. Not one brushstroke is derisive, ever, in the slightest. On the contrary, I love these paintings beyond words...enough to spend years painting them again.

I paint them for my own pleasure in being surrounded by them;
I paint them for the pleasure others might also find in them;
I paint them to make others even more aware of the originals and their greatness than they might already be;
I paint them for the sheer indescribable pleasure of "getting my brush round" several of my favourite images in the whole world;

   ...and finally, I paint them as a sort of anti-censorship gesture, as I so abhor censorship of the arts (or anything, for that matter, I really like things to be up-front.)
Not only do I think the Masters (or most of them) whose genius created the original images, would not object at all to what I am doing with their work, I actually believe they would be delighted to see their work given a new lease of life, and taken a stage further in a way that they were not allowed to do, they would most certainly have been hung drawn and quartered for a fraction of what I have done...and revelled in the doing as I do in the looking, when the work is complete.

   Just for my own pleasure, I usually make the work somewhat larger than the original; the Van Eyck, for example, is four times larger than the original. The only exception so far is the Ingres "Oedipus and the Sphinx" which I am making considerably smaller than the huge original.

   While I have so far only completed the Van Eyck and a Vermeer, "The studio," I have already started several, including a Bronzino, Botticelli, di Cosimo, Brueghel and a Rembrandt. Apart from those actually in progress, I do know which works will make up the eventual twenty one; I hope the gods will allow me enough life to complete them, as they are really amongst my favourite things that I do. I believe the eventual collection will be one of the most stunning visual experiences to be had anywhere in the world, and I for one will certainly enjoy them...beyond words.