Happy Hour

Happy Hour is a large figure painting in which four people are depicted sitting outside a bar late one summer afternoon. Meanwhile, in the background, demonstrators confront police in a scene taken from an event that I witnessed in Parliament Square.
I originally planned to have those in the foreground sitting on a beach somewhere in the Indian Ocean, while Paradise was undergoing a radical change. It was an idea which did bear fruit later.

Shortly before I began this painting I visited the National Gallery. I wasn’t looking for inspiration, but simply to pass some time before returning home. On leaving, I heard a commotion and saw demonstrators marching past Trafalgar Square. They were protesting against government cuts to education. So I followed them and began taking photographs.
By the time I reached Parliament Square, black clad anarchists were confronting police, and one of the Black bloc gave me the bad eye.

I kept clicking until he and the others withdrew. Then all became calm. The crowds melted away, and there, standing alone, making a phone call, was my son, Jack. He held a banner in one hand and a phone in the other.
At that moment I realised I had a new backdrop for my painting. Consequently it seemed appropriate that he should make an appearance — on the left — of Happy Hour.

This painting depicts a clash of polar opposites. It unites two scenes, one set in summer, and the other in winter.

Consequently, I have used two light sources in this painting.
The foreground figures are illuminated from the left, whereas the background figures are illuminated from the right.
Of course, the depiction of natural light has its place in painting, but it has limitations, anchoring artists to what is directly in front of them. In other words, it restricts the use of imagination.

Happy Hour is one of many pictures I have made, in paint and print, that have a sense of theatrical staging.  I spent 11 years working as a theatre technician, so it seems natural for me to work in this way.
This print is an obvious example:

Happy Hour combines socio-political content with a theatrical staging. Looking back, it lacks the painterly qualities I like to think are inherent in my current work. Yet, for me, it still holds up as a work I like. By that I mean I have no desire to rework it, which can’t be said for some other paintings of that era.