The Universal Alphabet 22- 28: a house; a standing ashtray; a woman turning away; a oman in a window; a magazine; a whale; a horse

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A house- 6.7 x 5.5 cm

A standing ashtray -  6 x 7 cm

A woman turning away 

A woman in a window 5.2 x 6.7 cm

A magazine

A whale

A horse

Sizes: all are about 3.5 x 5.5 cm, except where stated.

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The Don and dunes

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The Don and dunes, Aberdeen, oil on card, 32.1 x 29.5 cm - available from No31 Gallery

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The Universal Alphabet 15 - 21: a pussy; a middle-aged woman; a courgette; spotted panties; a woman`s bottom; a pear; a girl at a window

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A pussy 7 x 5.5 cm

A middle-aged woman

A courgette

Spotted panties 6.5 x 6.5 cm

A woman`s bottom

A pear

A girl at a window 5.4 x 6.6 cm

Sizes: all are about 3.5 x 5.5 cm, except where stated.

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The Universal Alphabet 8- 14: a woman; a paintbrush; a townhouse; a dress; a false nose; tears; a strange woman

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A woman

A paintbrush

A townhouse

A dress

A false nose

Tears

A strange woman

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Sizes: all 8.5 x 6 cm  except for a dress which  is 7.2 x 6.2 cm

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The Universal Alphabet: 1 - 7: table; a mountain across the sea; a balding man; a girl looking in a mirror; an oval table; a desk; a chair seen through a window

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The Universal Alphabet

The Universal Alphabet was a project I began (probably) in 1993 in Camberwell, South East London, then continued in Maida Vale in West London in 1994 for about another year on and off, before petering out.

The Alphabet consisted of hardboard cards, usually 6 x 9 cm, painted with acrylic paints. 

They are accompanied by an alphabet and a set of numbers which are about 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm in size.

The cards depicted images intended to have an elemental salience.  I`d hoped they might be combined to suggest narratives or convey messages, or be used in a game, the rules of which might be defined by the players themselves. In the course of painting them, however, these objectives were often forgotten and my own subjective ends took over.

The inspiration came from Victorian parlour games and  Ladybird books-  these filtered through Paul Auster (specifically City of Glass from the New York Trilogy), and  the surrealism of Magritte.

A few of these cards have already featured on this blog: I shall now post them all online in about 30 different posts, in no specific order.

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Tangentially related to these cards these is a simple jigsaw, which I shall also post in due course.

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The cards are not being posted in any particular order. 

Sizes: all are about 3.5 x 5.5 cm, except A table and A balding man, both of which are 8.5 x 6 cm.

All are available.

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A table

A mountain across the sea

A balding man

A girl looking in a mirror

An oval table

A desk

A chair seen through a window

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W. B. Yeats resting in my bed

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W. B. Yeats resting in my bed

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St Swithin`s Street, Aberdeen: ten pictures on display

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 Horseguards Parade, the lonely civil servant goes home, oil on card, 2014, 11 x 15 cm  AVAILABLE  

This is among ten pictures on display at Coppa for the next few months.

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