Another signed reproduction of the 1982 painting Routemasters was ordered this month and the buyer asked me for a history of the original painting. A few of the signed reproductions are still available so here is that history for anyone else who may be interested.
Routemasters 1982 Oil on canvas 110x150cms
In the early 1980s I was working on a series based on observations of daily life on the high street. I would take up a position and simply observe the daily theatre of ordinary lives; brief encounters;entering and leaving shops; walking dogs; tussles with children; crossing the road and boarding and leaving buses. These small dramas could have taken place on almost any high street in the country except of course those involving the iconic Routemasters. After prolonged observation of the arrivals and departures at a bus stop on Chiswick High Road I decided on a composition that would capture both. I divided the canvas exactly in half and with a slight distortion of the advertisement boards was able to show both the arrival of one bus and the departure of another. At that time I was showing at the Piccadilly Gallery in Cork Street, but when the director saw the finished painting he said, “You can’t split a composition in half like that!” I was disappointed by this response so I took it to Fischer Fine Art in St James’ and they offered to include it in a forthcoming show on British Realism. The following year Routemasters was included in a show entitled 8 British Realists at the Louis K Meisel gallery in New York. After prolonged discussions with the The London Transport Museum came to nothing I decided not to show the painting again and it remained in storage until 2010 when it was included in my show Time Passages at the Bigger Picture Gallery.