some of you may well have detected from recent posts on here that i have indeed recently had reason to celebrate my date of birth, for it was my birthday. quite a few of you, look you see, will have happened to know this anyway. a lot of you would not care for this information at all, and you would not be wrong to be of that mind. who am i, after all, but one of millions of voices upon the internet line.
what might be of interest to a number of you is one of the superb gifts with which i was furnished. it was, and indeed is, a painting. it was constructed or if you like imagined and talented into being by my (considerably) better half with such flair and skill that you would be forgiven for once again asking what exactly when wrong that she ended up with me in this world.
behold, then, the finished painting, in as far as a painting is ever finished.
indeed yes, it is a likeness, or if you like portrait, of Bowie. my (considerably) better half has been planning on doing a painting of one of my idols for years now and, well, life took a turn which said that this subject would be most apt inspiration for this one.
i encouraged my (considerably) better half to take "stages" pictures of her work, in particular around the early stages when it became clear that this was to be something quite special. what follows, then, is a stage by stage look, starting with the preliminary sketch.
my artistic abilities would not have got even this far. at best, and i do mean at, maybe i could have pulled off a halfway convincing cigarette, and maybe a lapel or shirt button.
a painting is, strictly speaking, characterised by paint, and so the next stage was to start adding some paint to it. so my (considerably) better half tells me, at the least - i am not going to pretend that i know anything much about how all this art stuff works.
was this image chosen for specific or particular reasons? yes. everyone who loves Bowie, for we love him still, has in their mind an image of the Bowie that they love. it can be him looking cool, how he looked when they discovered him through his music or film, or one of his more iconic, well known looks. for me, that would be 1976 Bowie.
if i had to pinpoint a moment at which i turned from "quite liking" Bowie to regarding him as one of the greatest artists that i shall ever have the pleasure of experiencing the work of, it was on hearing Station To Station for the first time. the bleak, stark, isolar haunting of it that seeks to clutch at light and to be part of something really struck something in me, and still does.
also, he looked mega awesome beautiful handsome cool in this time. if i had the power to look what i would consider to be the most stylish and outrageously attractive as was possible, Bowie 76 is it. and that is why my (considerably) better half looked to images from this era for inspiration.
again, i am no art expert, but man, that shading and texture to the chin and jaw, and around the neck, blows me away. i am in awe of people who can do this sort of thing, so yes i am in awe of my (considerably) better half and i may well regret committing that to print, but there you go.
you don't really want my words, you want to look at the progression of this art.
yes, i did want to reference a lyric in the title of this blog and call it A Portrait In Flesh, but it's not done in flesh, conventional paints did the job. and pencils, i think.
Stages Bowie works for me as it references the numerous releases called Changes Bowie over the years, and plays on Stage, the name of his 1978 live album which was roundly celebrated. as, i hope, will be the case with this most splendid painting.
and, that's that. here is the first picture she took of the completed work, with the one at the start being taken later in what my (considerably) better half assures me is better light. to me it just looks awesome anyhow.
there are times, i am sure you know, where "thank you" does not quite cut it. i am left utterly and understandably blown away by this magnificent painting done for my viewing pleasure. for my viewing pleasure, for sure, but my hope is that all who love Bowie as much as i have over the years stumble on this and like what they see.
right, time for me to look upon this picture some more, then to retire for the evening.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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