my favourite painter … graham knuttel.

above our fireplace are two signed prints of my favourite living painter,and his name is graham knuttel.
the one on the left is of a bunch of bogus sailors set adrift on a sea of sharks,
while the other on the right is of a rich man in hospital with a supposably caring nurse,who you can’t help feeling has an agenda all of her own.

a thing i enjoy a lot about this mans paintings is everyone sleeps with one eye open.
they trust no one,and they can’t be trusted themselves.
it’s pure living hell, yet quite funny too.
graham lays his canvas out like a stage set,and you have a gas guessing what’s going on.

the more i find out about graham knuttel, the more i like him.
an interesting thing is even though he studied his craft as a young man, he didn’t really get into his stride until he was over forty.
he very much likes a drink,but it wasn’t until he stopped,that his work really snapped into focus,
… and i love the story behind that.
he was sitting on a bench on a street corner in dublin,when a beautiful girl who was a heroin addict sat down beside him ,
she had third degree burns on her leg, and was of a real state,so he took her in.
his love for her was born out of compassion and protectiveness.
their affair rolled along,but in order to maintain some sort of sanity for living ,he decided at least one of them had to give up their vice,
and so he stopped drinking, took to his brushes to ride him through the storm,and success came calling.

i believe that affair has ended,and he now drinks one night a week with gusto,but then goes home alone and works well for the rest of the time.

another thing i like about graham knuttel is his absolute lack of pomposity.
he see’s himself as a pop artist..as in his work is for anyone,
and his pictures really do have that instant appeal of a good pop record.

a friend of mine in santa fe who used to run a homosexual leather bar in hollywood called ‘the spike’, came to visit me in ireland in the early ninties.
i took him to dublins apollo gallery who represented graham knuttel at the time, and he bought two huge originals at a then affordable price.
they are his pride and joy.
both me and thomas derive much pleasure from the signed prints that hang above our fireplace too.

dear reader,i hope you’re weathering the winter well,and can see spring on your horizon.

always…
mary of the wilderness.