Back of the Net....

'Baggie Bird and Boiler Man', oil on canvas, 30 x 40cms, 2026

I was pleased to hear this week that I had had a painting selected for The Football Art Prize 2026, an exhibition celebrating ‘the beautiful game’ and that will feature up to 75 artworks from around the world. It will be on show at Sheffield’s Millenium Gallery in June-August, and then at the National Football Museum in Manchester in November. The private view on June 10th will be on the night before the first World Cup Match. There were 900+ entries apparently, and the judges included Tim Marlow, the director of The Design Museum, renowned artist Harland Miller and England Women’s footballer, Jessica Naz. 

'After The Match', oil on canvas, 30 x 40cms, 2026

I must admit I had my eye hopefully on trying to get into this exhibition after I saw a call-out a few months ago. I thought it might make a nice change to other open exhibitions I apply for. I had also not long completed 2 football-based paintings that I thought might be worth entering. I then felt it might be a good idea to try another one. Three seemed a better number than two, and at 30 x 40cms, they are all the same modest size. All of them are based on my occasional experiences of accompanying my son to the Hawthorns to watch West Bromwich Albion, but I can’t say I am a big football fan. At these matches my interest is drawn more towards the atmosphere in and around the ground and watching the fans rather than the actual match itself, a fact that is reflected in the first two paintings. These are of a queue at a burger van; a regular, comforting sight on the post-match walk to the car, and a view in the stand as the fans start to gather before the match, meeting up again with friends and familiar faces in regular spots.  

'Pre-Match Tension', oil on canvas, 30 x 40cms, 2026

The painting I had selected, which I thought if anything might pique the judges interest more because of its unusual subject matter, is based on my enjoyment of the pre-match ritual of the team Mascots that launch onto the pitch in bizarre, cumbersome, and probably very hot, costumes before the start of the match. One of the costumes is usually a representation of that year’s club sponsors, in this case a local boiler company for the mascot known as Boiler Man. The other mascot, Baggie Bird, is associated with the Baggies long historical mascot of the Throstle bird. The mascots normally stumble about, say hello to younger fans waiting to meet their heroes, and then take a few shots at goal to the roar of the crowd who are warming up by now. It’s a silly, but nice part of the match day culture which I enjoy. That and a balti pie with a cup of hot tea….I’m pleased the painting did score a goal with the judges. Although on the surface it may appear a bit light a friend said that he found it rather poignant. That will do me. Back of the net!

The Big Painting Challenge

A view of the studio last week...

Out of the blue less than three weeks ago on Monday afternoon I was called up by a man called Graham who had seen my paintings on the internet. He wondered if I would be interested in painting a large painting of the interior of a factory for his small start-up local energy company who wanted the painting for display at some forthcoming trade events. A bit random, you may think…I did too, but by Friday, after seeing some photos of the type of image he wanted, I had agreed to do it.

It was to be a giant 2m high x 4m wide canvas, one of the biggest paintings I have ever made, which I decided to do over 8 canvasses of 1m square fixed together, a bit like David Hockney’s large Yorkshire landscapes. This seemed a good idea, but by the following Wednesday, after spending 2 days in my studio hanging these canvasses together in my studio, staining the canvasses with a phthalo blue ground, and gridding and then painstakingly enlarging the preliminary drawing I had made, I found myself looking dumbly at this vast canvas surface which took up the whole of my studio wall,  very daunted and a little overwhelmed, wondering what I had let myself in for…it had seemed like it would be a nice change to do something like this, now it seemed like a completely mad idea, especially as they needed it by May 12th…

After a few days of staring at it and thinking about the technicalities of how to create this painting, last Saturday I dived in and spent a whole day working on it. After a few hours of very enjoyable but physically and mentally taxing work, I knew I was ‘in’, and that it would be ok. I could do it. I worked on it again on Monday evening and by the end of Tuesday I had finished it. I think it looks good. It looks very modernist in feel, like a David Bomberg, but also carried elements in its abstraction, of contemporary painters such as Stanley Whitney and Thomas Shiebitz, whose abstract, colourful paintings I like a lot. Graham and Pauline at Osmium Energy were also really pleased too. Phew. 

So that’s been a bit crazy. I now need to leave it to dry, which hopefully it will before the first trade event on May 12th, and get it transported out of my studio. As I write this though, and the dust settles a bit, I think what a risk it has been to create this in my humble garden studio in just a couple of weeks.  I think painting brings out the madness in me sometimes....