Poster boy for the exhibition Ken Takakura, originally used by Tadanori Yokoo is coming out fighting from the explosive side - lettering courtesy of the Sarah Vaughan LP, 1963 - to the backing of BamaLamaBamaLoo tracking over him - a toss up between the Sonics & the Wailers, YeeHah! go git 'em cowgirl straight of a WangDangDo! flyer, cheering on the 40s bawdy Burlesk showgirl kicking high against the stars and stripes, riding higher still on a half-cut woodcut Lion from that fancydan Lancelot Du Lac circa 1515, chasing that goddamn eightball - smash! in the bottom corner . . . must be serendipity, cobbling all that together - or cobblers' awls, rhyming slang for balls - bollocks then.

The Yakuza aka Where's me Jumper?

Mimicking a missed match portrait poster,  the split on the face from poor registration creating a faceted shift in view. **** is a four-letter word, the calligraphic AM the first letters of the Art Master of Chelsea who's giving it the tattooed fist bump of love - which will only end in tears of paint, the wily fox stirring up true love trouble along the way. And to think it all started in midnight blue casting a pink shadow over the art mistress, her heart taken by the haunted . . .
​"I walked over to her and said what's your name?
My name's Mary Jane and I live down the lane . . . alright . . . "

By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​
Devil's Brew. Acrylic, mixed-media on Canvas 42x60cm. Also available as a 42x60cm limited edition print.

Dos cervesas por favor! The last painting for this show that brought together a couple of elements that I had been wanting to use. The satanic genie wrought in fire and iron rising like a flame from the devil's brew - take your pick: rum, whisky, coffee, ice-cream or lager beer - it's all come pouring out the empty mouth. It's got a bit of mexican pulp schlock about it, the cartoon sombreromen, skull 'n' crossbottles over the self-portrait, rings on my fingers, little kids screaming fuck fuck fuck in the hollowed sockets of the death-head, dead heat  in germanic script, fire in my bones emanating upside down, all against a blood red background. It's all very mia morte, just as well I don't take these things too seriously. Dos mas cervesas por favor! Salud!
The soundtrack to this should be . . .

​​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​

Blue Bear on a Bike. Acrylic on canvas 42 x 60 cm. Also available as a 42 x 60cm limited edition print.

For non-locals who are curious, the whole 'twinned with ... Holland' is rather spurious, relating to road exits and entrances closed, designating them for bikes over cars, side-effects being car journeys lengthened and gridlock on the main roads. It has acquired a bit of 'don't mention the war' about it as no-one can agree on it. So, what better than a stoned blue bear from 'Innit!' in Holland. Yes, that funny and ​cliche-ridden. On your bike! a lovely re-imagining of a travel travail poster with a doctored street-sign, the background tulips of Amsterdam pattern rising to the apples and oranges of the market. The bear given it the big W, Yeah! 

​Who's playing the coconuts on this . . .

The first of the three local works. With the deco dog track lettering at the top, the vertical wooden beams and plaster in the background, the grinning idiot giving it a big W is an old thumbnail sketch of my younger self in my best ligne claire. The premise comes from a self-mocking description of the artist as village idiot, held aloft on shoulders in his nightshirt one moment, chased through the streets getting poked on his bare arse with flaming torches the next. Year in, year out. Blimey, innit! A regular Saturday night in the village . . .

​​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​

L. O. V. E17 Acrylic on Canvas 42 x 60cm. Also available as a 42 x 60cm limited edition print.

The third of three local themed prints. Under the daylight white deco top of the Walthamstow Stadium sign  - neon at night is the day-glo punked up pouting gorgeousness that is Dany Saval, a French actress, photographed by Doug Kirkland in the 60's. Her face has the impression of being stuck on top of the blue bear, ears poking out, his hands giving a big W for Walthamstow, Yeah! Innit! GBK! I L.O.V.E. E17. 
What better way to show that GBK than through 16 year-old Shangri-La Mary Weiss . . .

​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​

Smirkin' Merkin The House and Playgrrr Dog. Acrylic & mixed media on canvas 42 x 60cm.
Also available as a 42x60cm (A2) limited edition print.

Couldn't be anything else really.
This is a smaller version of an earlier painting (see below) which was a paean to my first years in London, living on the cheap squatting in the Elephant and having a high old time of it in house and out running around. The days when your night started after work but really began by getting the last tube into town. The Stooges, Funhouse in particular was the core  soundtrack to those days. Both the background house and the PLAYGRRR lettering have come from recent photos around the Rockingham (there's a moose loose aboot this hoose . . .) Estate in SE1 where we lived on the top floor, hung out on the roof. The dog was a scrappy scribble of a fleabag itchin' animal. The dog got his moniker from an old mate that used to whine in manc "she 'ad a smerkin merkin". The dog is a stencil, as is the lettering -  from a playgrrround funnily enough. HOUSE comes from that rarity, a  defunct coffee shop. Cartoon characters, street lettering, Rizla + cross, and a femme fatale from a postcard in Lisbon a long time ago. All the usual shit just passing through . . .

House and Playgrrr Dog. Multi media on canvas 91 x 152 cm. note cat on acid.

​​​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​

NO EXIT Acrylic and mixed media on canvas 42 x 60cm. Also available as a limited edition 42x60cm print.

NO EXIT! Relax, Enjoy it's all going to be alright. Channelling the spirit of Noir and layering the story in a neo-cubist style, over-lapping lips and lust, one shocked dog, smoking and sultriness. After awful puns, alliteration always comes second, even if you have to  screw around with the grammar. 
Another graphic coming together from a 40s dog, a 50s comic book, a 60s smoking ad. and NO EXIT - the outer circle of Regent's park - 'til after 7am. Numerical serendipity split by the lips from the 00s.
I am aware that these 'explanations' are just turning into lists of references. To be honest it is a bit hard trying to remember what was bouncing inside my brain some months ago. And even if I could, who the fuck, including me, cares!? Let's have some music instead . . .  

​​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​

Lucy - Bar Confectioner Especial - Te Amo. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas. 70 x 100cm
​Also available as a 42 x 60 (A2) giclee print.

Te Amo - I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball of course was an incredibly talented & beautiful actress turned madcap comedienne who's show was filmed and broadcast live from the early 50s through to the 60s. A remarkable woman and the more that I've learnt about her the more amazed I am (If you like this painting- go and look up her work on YouTube, read about her . . ) which, in part is why this is one of my own favourite paintings. That and it just seemed to coalesce so smoothly.
The photograph was fairly easy to pick, the colour is very similar to this painting apart from pale blue starburst make-up. And tattoos.  Again to get a flat surface, a thick lining paper silhouette was glued down and the layers of paint laid on top of that. Her hair, stacked high and intricately wavy was a 4-part stencil and it was one of those that was touch and go until about halfway through and it just worked, I couldn't have screwed it up if I tried. No pun intended. The actual drawn and cut stencil blacklines were few and simple, and because of that had to have smooth and certain accuracey.
The lettering came from my photos: BAR  was from a 3D lit up sign in Rome, Its reflection used as balance, CONFECTIONER was a trade-sign on a tin in the Museum of Childhood, ESPECIAL came from a shoe shop SPECIAL Sale sign on Oxford St, I added the E to make it, well, more especial, under that there is BINGO at The New Rose, house! some graffiti text I scribbled and her tattoo lettering was hand drawn as well. The point is,  elements of a painting just emerge in the process. There was no real connection between any of these words at the outset. They may be tenuous or not linked at all - as you would find on a wall with posters, stickers and graffiti.
That's a young Rembrandt van Rijn self-portrait pulling a surprised face, and also my screen saver at the time on the right and the shrieking (decapitated?) head and neck of Little Richard hollering " Lucille, you won't  do your sisters will !" and you can it's be glad it's not the inflated beardy-head of Kenny Rogers.

​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​

Nancy Sinatra - Phaedra 4567 Reprise. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas 70 x 100cm.
Also available as a 42 x60 cm (A2) limited edition print.

The construct of the painting is based on the Reprise records vinyl label, yellow in the bottom half then  green  & lilac a quarter each  on the top half, then broken into flat blocks of similar colour. Bit of proto synthetic cubism going on there. The lettering/ideas for the composition comes from Some Velvet Morning, Phaedra was her name of course, the 45 recorded in '67 on Reprise. Not The 5678's although iIt's Japanese for Nancy spray-painted on the right and of course she had flowers in her hair it's 67 after all  and who's in her head, none other than the mournful mustachioed Lee Hazlewood. They called him Sand.

By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​

Veronica Lake - Smoke Party Dynamite. Acrylic & mixed media on paper and canvas 70 x 100cm.
Also available as a 42 x 60 (A2) limited edition print.

I first remember seeing Veronica Lake in I Married A Witch with Fredric March as a half-wit child and it is a film that has stood the test of time, all the way back to the 1600s. A great film. Her witches party hat can be seen on the right, emblazoned with stars reflecting the pink one on her forehead. The glamrock spirit of Roy Wood & Ayshea Brough lives on. Peek-a-boo! the SMOKE comes from a  hand-painted smokehouse sign on Brighton beach, the party is what a party is, festa italiano, pure DYNAMITE 100% explosive, Kip Tyler on the record machine, black cat on fire and the nasty sprite with the baseball bat is having none of all that, he's going to beat the living shibitshibob out of that fancydan Pierrot from here to  next  Tuesday. Yeah, see you next Tuesday. Clown!

​​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​

Nichelle Nichols - Venus Power 77. Acrylic, Spraypaint & mixed media on paper and canvas 70 x 100cm
​Also available as a 42 x 60 (A2) limited edition print.

Uhuru means freedom in Swahili, this of course is Uhura. Nichelle Nichols was about to leave Star trek after the first season but was convinced by trekkie fan Martin Luther King to stay as she was such a powerful role model. He is quoted as saying, "For the first time on television, we [people of African descent] will be seen as we should be seen every day, as intelligent, quality, beautiful people who can sing and dance, yes, but who can go into space, who can be lawyers and teachers, who can be professors — who are in this day, yet you don’t see it on television until now". She went on to be an ambassador for NASA, encouraging women and African Americans to join the service. There is a awful lot to admire including the first televised inter-racial kiss - with Kirk of course - and her singing career which went from the Duke Ellington Band to a  Northern soul classic. 

Honey Muffin indeed. Again another full face portrait on pasted paper, mainly done with spraypaint on a base colour and claire ligne stencil. Falling stars over the stack of soul runs from blue to red across to the clenched raised fist of female power. Two sevens clash on the right, Culture not Black Uhuru, more stars and honey muffin hearts up to the comic book representation of The Rezillos and part of the design for Destination Venus single. Full circle to venus then representing love, beauty and Nichelle Nichols. Must have been that schoolboy crush. Not that I was the only one (see Barack Obama).

​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​

Carole Lombard - SureShot Screwball Angel. Acrylic & mixed media on paper and canvas 70 x100cm.
Also available as an A2 (42x60cm) Giclee print.

​If you're unfamiliar with Carole Lombard, here she is screwing up and reacting like a true screwball  . . .

My Man Godfrey, if you haven't seen it - treat yourself:  ​https://youtu.be/3adHdfNzJII

This was one of the first female icon portraits I completed. There are two things I wanted to do, firstly to celebrate women that aren't remembered/celebrated as much as they should be, particularly in response to the lazy, hackneyed use of Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. They now have the equivalent omnipresence of Mickey Mouse or Banksy's Balloon Girl as shallow artistic/cultural signifiers of cool. It also had to do with all them mutable memories and the pleasurable impact of women like Carole, Lucy etc. had on the malforming mind of young GOMACG. Now that takes me right back to saturday afternoons, a mug of coffee, a whole packet of biscuits (bourbon creams, nothing but the best) and a Bette Davis double bill. No! i'm not going out to play! Happy days! 
Secondly I wanted to create simplified large scale portrait stencils around which the rest, whatever that may be, would unfold. It wasn't easy to pick a single image but this close-up shot had the unintentional bonus of her giving a sly V-sign before it existed in common usage. Still not popular in America even though two are better than one.  I'm nothing if not puerile (see London - A Fuckin' Mystery Circus & Devil's Brew, also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign I kid you not, UpYours Delors! )
As with some of the others I cut out the head shape on heavy lining paper and pasted it onto the canvas laurel and hardyesque, to get a smooth flat surface. The stencil was a large one-off coloured underneath in advance. The Sure Shot logo waving through her hair down to Mikey Dread comes from an old ska label and there is a Jackie Mittoo tune of the same name and it kind of resonated - screwball - sure shot  - Yep, it's really that simple - (surprisingly no 8Ball made it on there) and of course, she is an absolute angel (lettering off a Camino Del Angel wine label - nothing but a serendipitous magpie, picking up what's lying around - empty bottles in this case).  For The screwball font - QUICKSILVER  -  nerds, came from my well thumbed resource, The Letraset Catalogue 1978 ringbound, 261 pages, 50p at the till, no less, was a single stencil as well, 5 base colours under and 5 colours stencilled through. Interesting, no? I don't know why I'm trying to make this sound extremely precise and difficult work. I guess because the opposite is true, and it's all such damn good fun - when it goes right.  Finally, the sketchbook hairy gonzo character book-ends pointy Mikey Dread 2-1 winner, and that is as serious as I get, so XXXX YOU! very much. 
That's above the W. For XXXX sake. Open your eyes . . .

No.1 in 1940 - something I imagine she would have listened and danced to with her husband Clark Gable.

​​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​

Vagabond - A Bohemian Fairy Tale. Acrylic & mixed media on scrap wallpaper and canvas 42 x 60cm.
Also available serendipituously as an A2 print - also 42 x 60 cm. 

"You shouldn't go walking in these spooky old woods alone . . ." Starter for ten, video at the end. It is . . .
The star-crossed vagabond is taking this cautionary tale in her stride. Beset by the bones of the mexican reaper, the gothic red wrought-iron bars can't hold this high-spirited angel on earth down. Her eager beaver companion Babycham Bambi, Bang! has been shot in the head. They've literally thrown the book at her. It's wicked grinning face barely covers the depravity inside. Only the devil in a smoking-jacket stands in her way. Not that that is the first thing you would notice about him . . . perhaps the badly crafted spade mask covered in jade, his long and flowing mane of scalped blonde hair, the evil sprite flying out of his pocket. He's no match to her kick-ass ways, travelling is her creed and she's got to keep moving. A few swift stiletto kicks in the head and she's on her way - running, walking, kicking-high those vagabond shoes,and dancing, singing out loud, flying high above the clouds!

Or. Whatever. You might want to conjure up something else. Amongst all of the inspiration for style is the main element - fiction. Making it up as I go along. It's all intuitive. Starts as one thing, ends as many others. And, that is where the fun is. They don't have to be anything other than what they appear to be and since art is so subjective, blaaahhh, if I hadn't just made all of this just up you would have you're own interpretation. I'd like to get Waldemar Jauszczak and his suitcase on here. He'd soon sort it out. 

And the answer is - a right bunch of groovy bohemians if ever there was - 
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs - L'il Red Riding Hood.  AAOOOWWW!!!!

​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​

A Date Night with Elvis Acrylic & mixed media on canvas 46 x 61cm Available as Original Painting or A2 Print

The original wooden totem with a bone horn hangs above my work desk, over a foot long and more than half as wide it is quite an intimidating companion, staring out over me, questioning me to come up with the goods. There's an old squarehead nail banged into his bottom lip like a permanent smoke in the mouth. He's a happy chappy and I hope and he stays that way as I wouldn't want a head-butt from this cool, unicornman. The starting point for this was unsurprisingly the tip of his priapic tusk. Just what you imagine could be lurking under Elvis' greased back hair, the primitive horn that rises on date night.  A deep blood red stencil of the king himself hugging a beautiful girl into blissful joy. Lurking behind them is Lux Interior keeping hard eye on all the shenanigans going on. But it's all cool and groovy YEAH! the toxic exhalation of  lovesssss potion is in the air. Sitting astride all of this is the Angel Baptist and his devil's horns (one of few characters that I have borrowed - he was too hard to resist - comes from a fantastic 1965 children's book  by Swiss woodcut illustrator Robert Wyss). Of course the whole thing speaks of the anamilistic, the devlish, the primitive . . . which surprisingly isn't the musical accompaniment to this, instead it's Voodoo Idol by The Cramps which Lux sings with slight hysteria like he's reading from Tales from the Crypt . . .

This started out as another portrait giving the V (see Carole Lombard), puerile I know, still I think probably the second best hand gesture (see wanker) probably because it is not just contempous, it's defiant and anti-authority. It always brings to mind Billy Casper in Kes and latterly Peter Kay giving a sly, face stroking V. But, who's that lady? Another distortion of a vintage glam letraset lady. You've got to love that cruella hair. Just the kind of madam with a hairdon't that should be in charge of a fuckin' mystery circus aka London. Roll up drunk! Step inside the dystopian hairdresser underground, for all the gang are here: we've got a smokin' strongman caveman, a shortarse trippin' witchdoctor casting spells, sweetmother of jesus a big mutant rat head baby and a psycho snake swallowing shawoman. Best show this side of the Coney Island Freakshow! Or Patty Duke giving go-go vent to swingdom, what a warm up . . .

HATE by THE STOICS
Well that sums it up more than I ever could.
Nailmouth was a little pen sketch, no doubt for channelling my anger. God knows what I was angry about, but there's always something. As a portrait in uncontrolled anger, he's makes a lovely central character in a painting, sweating bullets, effing & blinding, grrrr-ing and spitting phlegm. He's superfine thankyou!  He's the centre of his own storm oblivious to the hilarious cat calls by the drunken letraset girls. His assurances of happy calm spat through his gaping orifice is, what'd they say - disingenuous. Poco loco? I should coco! With those mad staring eyes! All against a nice faux worn wood background in thick layers of seaside pastel paint over scratched, torn & worn words and pattern. Maybe that was the spur - the seaside on a bank holiday, Walton-on-the-Naze I'm thinking of you.  It isn't just all sunshine and ice-creams, it's all those other people too, driving you mad! Makes you feel like spitting nails! Happy Days!!

By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​

The current portrait is sharper,  painted on pasted and torn paper on canvas stretched over an old screenprint frame. The portrait is a spray-painted partial pink stencil layered on top with a full black outline Ligne Claire as the french would say. A significant inspiration in my work. Across the top the X marks the 10th painting in succession, the seven colours of the rainbow, Easy swirling around his head, easy as the 8-ball in the top pocket, blowing off steam or your smoke of choice amongst  the cascade of kisses and lips from the 5 colour stencil of 21 year old Sophia Loren (it was her 80 something birthday when I was making this) even the dog is given the thumbs up! and the ever-present musical connection being Easy Snappin by Theo Beckford symbolised by the pink hibiscus and 70s reggae style lettering. The original Easy Snappin from the mid-50s is taken to be the precursor of ska and therefore reggae. There were lots of versions by him over the years and each to their own, but this is my favourite . . .

​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout. The thoughts behind it, if there were any, the process, er, painting !? and the goddam point of it all if I can remember. All those mutable memories and all. Don't worry I won't clog up your valuable Fbook every day because let's face it HA! there's enough crap there already. Just every few days  to remind you that I am here and if you haven't been to see it by then - in the name of SweetBabyJesus why not!?  Working from left to right, top to bottom - starting with MUERTE! the juvenile delinquent robot on Eden Road . . .

MUERTE!  91 x 152 cm Acrylic and mixed media on Canvas.
This was one of the first paintings that I did when I started back full time. It began with a doodle. Like I'm five years old and I'm drawing a robot - as a vinyl sticker, but five feet high. I cut out the shape on paper and pasted it on to the canvas. Exciting! He's a toddler robot who's got a much troubled teddy bear, a sonic raygun and a pair of pisswet y-fronts. Mexico is a big influence on me, so he's an aztec robot (ref: Eric Von Daniken and his aztec camera etc.) living the gory aztec life.  Perhaps the wily chica bonita or the dazed and confused son of Cheech or Chong can stop him. Who really cares? You couldn't make it up! Except I did, it's all my fault. The MUERTE! lettering was cut'n'paste as well with a bit of Jackson Pollock splash painting. 'La Gloria' was from a votive candle wrap which aptly leads to the soundtrack accompaniment  to this painting . . .

SERENDIPITY is now open day and night at The WVWG on the corner of Eden and Orford Road in the heart of Walthamstow Village, London. WVWG as you can see, is a window gallery with all the artworks facing out. You can see it from first light until midnight every day from today until the 25th February.
​There are three windows, ten metres of display space and twenty-three paintings and prints. All for sale. And for the duration of the exhibition all of the paintings can also be purchased as A2 sized (42 x 60cm) Limited Edition Giclee prints at a special exhibition price of £100. That is a bargain! Full details can be found at the exhibition and at wvwg.co.uk