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Self Portrait Without Winter Cherry
Acrylic on canvas 2006 100 x 100cm
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images to enlarge
Empathy With Edvard
Acrylic on canvas 2006 100 x 100cm
Sweetness (A painting for Morrissey)
Acrylic on canvas 2006 100 x 100cm
The Scrutiniser
Acrylic on canvas 2006 100 x 100cm
Naughty Boy
Acrylic on canvas 2006 100 x 100cm
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Ceri House: A Self Portrait
There comes a time when you realise that some of your fellow artists are the children of your contemporaries. You’ve known them as babies, children and teenagers, then here they are - artists.
Ceri House is the son of the artist/designer Gordon House. I met Gordon in the 1950’s, he remained a friend, and we often collaborated (Gordon did all the typography on ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’) until his still deeply regretted death, after a period of illness, in March 2004.
After Gordon died Ceri didn't paint for over a year and a half. I think he felt ‘what was the point of producing more pictures’! Then the Millinery Works invited him to have an exhibition. Ceri’s enthusiasm was rekindled but he wanted the paintings to be unlike his earlier work.
Ceri’s early work is mainly portraiture. He would obtain a garment from the subject of the portrait, de-assemble it, then reassemble it as the canvas, on which he would make the portrait. I was the subject of one of these paintings, for which I supplied a denim shirt. They were fascinating pictures.
Ceri is intrigued with the technique of fresco painting, and decided that for his new paintings he would use himself as subject matter, and make a series of self portraits, which he would attempt to paint in one sitting, recreating the limitations of fresco painting. He told me that this was assisted by consuming copious quantities of beer, and he realised it was unlikely that he would achieve a whole exhibition in this way, so the more recent paintings are made over a longer period of time.
It is unusual for a traditional portrait to have any sort of expression, at most just a slight smile. So the series of different extreme expressions, shouting, smirking, laughing and angry are almost shocking, and extraordinary.
The paintings are also often about other art, the story sometimes implied in the title, it’s an often intriguing art puzzle.
This is a fascinating and powerful exhibition, for which I congratulate Ceri House.
As a postscript I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Ceri for his collaboration in my work. He has made my picture frames for some years now and has often solved technical problems, and made wooden objects for me, which I am incapable of making - thank you
Ceri.
Sir Peter Blake
March 2007
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For further information
email paul@millineryworks.co.uk
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