Big Society

I find it difficult to imagine two words at present that make me feel quite so sick. 

Devoid of meaning, this term mutates and distends like a grossly swollen, malevolent tumour, metastasising through society (small S) at the whim of its distant masters. 

These two vulgar little words are being used to justify everything from the privatisation of the UK's heritage woodland, the decimation of the public sector and disembowelling of the welfare state at a time when the Big Society's masters have force unemployment to the highest levels in a generation.

We're all in this together, but some are more in it than others.

Portrait Prizes

I used to enter the UK's portrait prizes whenever I had an opportunity, and usually didn't do very well. There was the National Portrait Gallery's (NPG) annual BP Award and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP) annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries, both in London. I also entered the Bulldog Bursary, again at the RP

For the most part, I now think my portraits were/are terrible, mostly cartoonish or faux-Bacon pastiche. That said, the last time I entered I managed to get to the final round of judging in all three competitions, which I should take as a compliment I suppose. I spent a long time before the competitions looking at the way I work and trying to figure out what makes a painting at least a little bit successful. I still don't know what that is, but I managed to come up with something reasonable. I learned to push the paint around in new ways and worked with the images I was using differently too.