The 606 Club

The 606 Club

Lots Rd SW10: A group of middle-aged men pressed into an archway of a studio complex. Vinyl albums and marker pens held aloft on the off chance of seeing, snapping and obtaining the signature of an old ‘pop idol’ (sic) as he/she emerges from the studio lair. Candle still held in loyalty if not burnt at both ends these days.

Reflections

The symmetry of this painting reveals four simple shapes, two of which appear to inter-lock between the regular squares. A degree of contrast is achieved in the way the paint has been applied: in pulling the wet paste across the horizontal axis variations appear, implying different degrees of ‘decay’. Contrast is also promoted in the way the paint is rendered on the square shapes with a vertical movement.

The original visualisation of the album sleeves has been retained in this work and the actual composition hardly changed over the course of the painting’s ‘life’. From the first moment I read the MO I envisaged this painting would be some kind of purple colour. I imagined old basement bars, clubs or venues where bands might perform, and purple seemed to express these dingy subterranean spaces perfectly well.