Emulsion, oil, felt tip, paint pens, paper, cardboard, plastic and aluminium on canvas in wood frame

97x82x7cm

A pictorial dramatisation and meditation on the very personal process of art making. A painting about painting.

Mitchell’s works are a series of tangential vignettes, unified in a single art object. 

Arriving in California, David Hockney noted being thrilled by looking down from the plane and seeing blue swimming pools everywhere. They were a beacon of luxury and fun, shining in the urban landscape – a complete contrast to his native London. Here we zoom into one such pool with an artist at its centre laying on an inflatable lilo.

The water is framed by shredded detritus, like a roadside mower has churned up discarded consumer culture objects with natural vegetation, spitting out a mulch of references ready to be reassembled into a new visual language.

Laid bare and floating, our central figure could be mistaken for Leonardo di Vinci’s Vitruvian Man or one of many crucifixion portraits. But no, this guy is neither a body to be studied nor a martyr to be admired, he’s just an artist with agency, laying in the sun, piecing together a painting for himself and a story for you.