The Journey
A long tme ago, before we had children, I wanted to adorn my desk at work with something diverse and creative...something which I could look at an enjoy while I go about my daily activities.
I chose a handful of postcard images of some famous paintings; Van Gough, Monet, Cezanne and Picasso. I arranged them carefully on the wall by my desk using some blu tack and left them there. I was right... They became a welcome variant, something different to focus on when on a call etc. I could understand the impressionist works of Monet and Cezanne and the beauty contained within Van Gough's simplistic works...but what on Earth was going on in the utter mayhem that represented Picasso's work. It was, of course, Guernica. I can excuse myself for not taking it all in properly because the image printed on a postcard was far too small to encapsulate the original which was some 7m wide! But still, I was drawn to it and when I did find myself staring at it, I suspected that there was much more to the image than what one sees right away.
I gave up art and painting long before then and hadn't done any work at all until 2002 when I began, as a novelty, to try my hand at painting again. Good! I was pleased and gingerly kept it going... Until about 2004, I set about painting Picasso's masterpiece so that I could have a copy all of my own.
I found a decent image, as large as I could find and decided to use that as my reference. Next... how big? Well... It couldn't be on the small side, that would compromise its effect and would, in effect be a straight copy without the drama that comes with the sheer size of the painting. I did my research and found that the original size was 7m wide and some 3.5m high! The prospect of a like for like wasn't going to happen! What about a half sized version then? Yes... that would still be big enough to portray the drama and be just small enough to fit on the wall of my study.
But where was I going to find a canvas or any medium that size to paint it on? And even if I did find something that big, how was I going to get it home? And even if I did get it home, where was I going to paint it and how was I going to get it upstairs? The solution... paint it on a set of equally sized squares so that when placed together, the whole picture comes into being. At first I wasn't set on the idea because the original was painted as a single piece, not some pseudo jig saw puzzle. But then again, it wasn't meant to be a direct copy...it wasn't intended to fool anyone or to be an echo of the real thing. In fact the prospect of the picture being broken down into discrete and equal parts gave it a strange rhythm...almost like there being an imaginary exclamation mark for each piece. Thump, thump, thump...
Making the Plates
I went to my local DIY store and got them to cut 21 pieces of MDF, 500mm x 500mm each. That would, coincidentally, keep the proportions very close to the original. I painted each plate with a couple of coats of santex paint to give me the rugged base on which I would paint the picture. After I'd painted the plates, I added a wooden frame to the back of each plate to strenthen them and from which I could hang them together (and possible attach them together if required).
I gridded out the original image that I had from the book I bought... I hated to do this, I just have a real aversion to marking up any book let alone gridding its centre piece picture! Still, it was necessary... So I set about transfering the images piece by piece to each 500mm x 500mm plate. I could work on up to two plates high and three plates wide at a time...that was all the room that had on our dining room table.
I learned to layer the colours and began to learn how Picasso must have composed this painting. The swaythes of white, the blacks before adjusting and adding detail. I couldn't follow this of course because I wasn't composing a painting, I was meerly copying it. So, I painstakingly continued and was making my way down and across plate by plate.
Disaster!
I was about to make another start to the next stage one evening. I used inks to produce the fine lines and since the paint was dry, I could add the detail on the set of plates I had on the table in front of me. I got the inks ready and unscrewed the tops ready to start using them. Match of the Day was about to start and I didn't want to miss it and realised that if I waited until the program finished, I'd be far too tired to return to the painting...an opportunity wasted. I know... if I were to turn it 180 degrees on the table, I could continue to work on it and watch the TV at the same time through the open glass doors that linked the dinining room with the lounge. I duly switched the orientation round and was set to continue. Next, I needed to give the inks a good shake to loosen it up and mix them up. I forgot that I had already loosened the top!!! Ink went everywhere! All over the wall behind me, over the sand coloured carpet and all over the plates that were readied on the table... There's a point when it seems like time has stood still as your brain essimilates what has just happened... this was one of those times. The cleanup opertation started and I was glad to say that with some good elbow grease, carpet cleaner etc... we got virtually all of it off. But there was no way I could wipe off the ink that fell on the plates I was working on... those, simply had to be done again.
The finished result ended up in my study where it remained for several years which is the picture you see above.
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