Wednesday 18 January 2023

 


"The actor Richard Harris won the Tivoli Cup five times in a 
row as 'Dickie', using a loosely strung racket on Kilkee beach"

12 x 16 inches, oil on canvas, 2023

Included in the Naughton Gallery at QUB's forthcoming sports group show:

Saturday 7 January 2023

Further January Notes

 Forthcoming group show at the Naughton Gallery at Queen's in Belfast. A sports-themed exhibition, which is allowing me to revisit an image I have used before, from The Swimmer (dir. Frank Perry, 1968).

It is a very fleeting moment from the movie, in which Rusty Towers (we can deduce this from the novel by John Cheever, in which he is named) floats in a swimming pool at a riotous afternoon party. The movie is fairly faithful to Cheever's novel, and he plays a very small cameo part as a guest at the party (as does Joan Rivers). Burt Lancaster plays the lead as Ned Merrill, 'swimming home' through his neighbours' pools.

Study for Rusty Towers

Burt Lancaster as Ned Merrill

Rusty Towers in 'The Swimmer'

Work-in-progress