What’s more basic than a still life? On the other hand, what offers more opportunities to tackle a subject on your own terms and make it yours? A Picasso still life would never be confused for a 17th century Dutch momento mori, or a Giorgio Morandi composition of glass bottles. I’ve returned to the bottle still life theme so many times that I’ve built a whole section of my website for it.
Here the four bottles and vases sit on five pieces of found paper - discarded books and ledgers that I’ve collected from the flea markets and junk shops of Berlin. The books and ledgers have had previous lives, and maybe the bottles have too. They may be full bottles, or empty. Hard to say. The light’s likely sunset and the heavy shadows ground the bottle shapes, that are arguably both positive and negagtive with only the slightest amount of shading.
Adenauer was the first Chancellor of West Germany, and the page was taken from a book written about him in French. I can’t say what sums were calculated on the ledgers, other than that someone found them important enough to keep for over 60 years - until they were thrown away and wound up in my studio.
Note: Collage is sold un-matted and un-framed.
The un-matted collage is A3, 297 x 420 mm (11.7 x 16.5 in).
The pictured frame measures 500mm x 700mm (20” x 30” roughly).
What’s more basic than a still life? On the other hand, what offers more opportunities to tackle a subject on your own terms and make it yours? A Picasso still life would never be confused for a 17th century Dutch momento mori, or a Giorgio Morandi composition of glass bottles. I’ve returned to the bottle still life theme so many times that I’ve built a whole section of my website for it.
Here the four bottles and vases sit on five pieces of found paper - discarded books and ledgers that I’ve collected from the flea markets and junk shops of Berlin. The books and ledgers have had previous lives, and maybe the bottles have too. They may be full bottles, or empty. Hard to say. The light’s likely sunset and the heavy shadows ground the bottle shapes, that are arguably both positive and negagtive with only the slightest amount of shading.
Adenauer was the first Chancellor of West Germany, and the page was taken from a book written about him in French. I can’t say what sums were calculated on the ledgers, other than that someone found them important enough to keep for over 60 years - until they were thrown away and wound up in my studio.
Note: Collage is sold un-matted and un-framed.
The un-matted collage is A3, 297 x 420 mm (11.7 x 16.5 in).
The pictured frame measures 500mm x 700mm (20” x 30” roughly).