Homages
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Homages are indulgent.
They are flights of fancy.
Homages are links between experiences, objects, and admired paintings of the past: resulting from studying works in galleries, reading, or simply stumbling across items and ideas.
In some way they act as a reminder of the importance of meaning and metaphor can be in in art. It might not seem so, but Homages are also a testing ground for new colours and painterly experiments. They give me time to think, away from the urgency of the life room or the panic of plein air.
The first, Homage No.1 (to Durer), came about after seeing the wonderful Adam and Even (1507) at the Prado. Thoughts of expulsion, forbidden fruit and, later, a silenced Alessi bird whistle combined to form this first flight of fancy.