This is an abstract painting, based on the classic 'Popular Penguin' paperback books, a style icon. I wanted to take the original format of the book cover and transform it, distorting it with thick brushstrokes, and distorting the text, retaining the essence of the original inspiration but also becoming something new.
The paintings in this series were created over many sessions. The surface that you see has been built up in several layers, leaving marks and splashes visible. The surface is impasto and textural, with many spatters and signs of overpainting and reworking. Please note that the edges of the canvas are painted, and it is ready to hang without framing.
In this particular painting, the book titles are all 'Great American Novels', classics with big reputations. It was a pretty hard task to choose all of the titles. Some are personal favourites, others were chosen for their cultural influence and importance.
Former director of the Art Gallery of NSW, Edmund Capon, said of the first painting in this series, " an evocative imagining of the familiar Penguin Paperback...it was a painting we all liked very much for its rich texture, its sense of memory and its sort of nostalgic humour"
In terms of the application of the paint, I would cite the work of Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline as inspirations. The text owes something to the work of Rosalie Gascoigne.
These striking paintings will look great in any home.