Lot 1: David Cobley b.1954 Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Three Figures) oil on linen, painting

David Cobley b.1954 Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Three Figures) painting, oil painting, figurative, framed, landscape, pool, figure, figures, swimmer, artist, realism.

"The idea for this painting came to me last year while visiting my daughters who live in California. I swam almost every day in the neighbourhood pool and the reflections in the water reminded me of David Hockney’s 'Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)'. I share Hockney’s enthusiasm for the visual world and it seemed natural to make a painting based on it: not a pastiche or spoof, but a painting that was about my own relationship with water, California and a former partner.

"That's me in the swimming trunks. The figure in the pool is my ex-wife. A decade ago, she became deeply religious. I don’t share her enthusiasm for God and a life of servitude and I am looking on with some bewilderment at her new-found faith. Perhaps also with some nostalgia on the time spent bringing up our daughters before the chasm that opened up between us.

"The figure to the left is the hard-working Mexican who, in Orange County, is the one tending pools, mending roads and building houses. The hill in the background is Saddleback Mountain, which dominates the county’s eastern skyline.

"In preparation for the painting, which I completed back in the UK, I was fortunate to have the enthusiastic assistance of my eldest daughter, who acted as both camera woman and body double."

122 x 173 cm

oil on linen

2019

perfect

The Mall Galleries, September 2019

David Cobley: All By Himself by Peter Davies, published by Sansom & Company ISBN: 978-1-911408-53-6

signed by the artist

Framed