The Limey (1999): review- 7/10

7/10

Charismatic cockney thug Terence Stamp seeks revenge for daughter's death in LA.

Enjoyable, shallow, violent and efficiently made.

Winter day, Florianópolis

*



Winter Day, Florianópolis , oil on card, 8.2 x 12.5 cm  SOLD

Gift

A day so happy.

Fog lifted early. I worked in the garden.

Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.

There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.

I knew no one worth my envying him.

Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.

To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me.

In my body I felt no pain.

When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.

Czesław Miłosz, Berkeley, 1971

*

Three characters in search of a tableau

These are threee drawings of characters who will one day become made into cutouts, and set up as a tableau.

What I really need is a jigsaw and some light hardboard. Then I can cut out profiles to paint with the characters: doing such cutting work in this apartment just isn't feasable. But perhaps it will be some day: what I can do now is store up ideas for that day.

Another option is to use these characters in a painting: though what I like about the idea of having them as cutout two dimensinal "dolls" is the toy-like aspect that they'd have (I am extremely fond of children's toys, and there used to be produced pressed tin soldiers called "flats"; I'm also a big fan of the toy theatre).

I have had these ideas for many years, but often felt deterred not just by lack of a workspace but by my lack of a narrative within which to place my figures. I have decided not to care too much: the narrative can look after itself.

Cypress tree

Cypress tree, oil on card, 9.7 x 12.6 cm

Painted quickly in the cemetery: if it isn't raining it's just about to.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002): review- 7.5/10

A shy, internally frustrated businessman meets a beautiful girl, falls in love and defeats the sex-phoneline sharks who sought to oppress him.

Intriguing- even bizarre- with beautiful camera-work and a fine score.

Splendor in the Grass (1961): review- 5.5/10

Small town Kansas: two high school students wish to engage in sexual congress but their parents are too stuffy to let this happen.

As a result, the female goes nuts, while the boy, who's father is a cultureless oaf, has to go to Yale and study law, instead of the agrucultural college, as he would really like.

This is a self important, humourless piece that has dated badly. However, it is is well paced and carefully made and is still watchable.

Fantastic Mr Fox (2009): review- 9/10

Based loosely on Dahl's characters: Mr Fox is married and suburbanized: he seeks to re-experience some of the wilder, feral pleasures of his youth.

Magnificently made with a witty, insightful script.