11.19
please click on image to enlarge
Enamels (house paint) on particle board – size 900mm x 600mm.
This painting went through Bundaberg’s 2013 flood. Unfortunately at the time, it was stored in my unit, on the floor with many other past works. I painted it in enamels on particle board, at about the age of 16 (1969-ish).
At the time, I had a slight obsession with ancient Roman history, but this painting seems like a mix of a Napoleonic and Roman battle. Odd. The guy on the left seems French to me, at least. A strange mix indeed, but then, Napoléon did see himself as some Roman emperor. And I was sixteen. So anything goes (and still does, ha ha – at age 63, fortunately I haven’t grown-up all that much!)
This copy is not good. It was a rush job, at a time of ‘survival mode’, washing all the muddy, flood-damaged paintings with the hose, and quickly taking a photo of each, in un-ideal light conditions. Then the original was thrown onto a massive pile of my furniture and chattels, on the kerb in front of my unit. Trying times. But also a time to purge. I had too much ‘stuff’, and the River managed to choose for me – what to throw out. Glad I was at least calm enough – with so much to do, cleaning up mud throughout the house – to take photos of the works I discarded. “Battle” – in a way, it sums up that period in time for me. But better times ahead!