Winner:
Sir John Sulman Prize 2012
Nigel
Milsom
Title:
Judo House pt 4 (Golden mud)
Medium
oil on linen
Further
information:
This
work is from an on-going series based around the loose idea of gambling,
whether it be with one’s life, money, career or simply in the day-to-day
decisions we all make.
The
actual idea for this painting came to me after meeting an old man at my local
bus stop who told me he travels into a city leagues club every Saturday to
drink and bet on the horses with some old friends. His wife had died and he
lived a very solitary life apart from his Saturday social engagements.
In the
painting I’ve tried to capture a kind of social loneliness. The word STOW is a
reference to the late Australian writer Randolph Stow who wrote about fear and
paranoia and how emotions seem to grip small, isolated communities in his novel
The suburbs of hell. His name seemed apt for this painting as it creates a
sense of mystery. - Nigel
Milsom, 2012
***
I
could stare at this painting for hours.
I am
no art critic and my knowledge of style and history and significance pretty
much covers the base of a teacup… but I know what locks my gaze and my attention.
I can figure out the rest later. For now, all I can say is that for someone to
be able to make my heart stop a moment with brushstrokes? Paint? No… there’s
nothing but pure emotion in this picture - the artist took that moment with
that old man and turned it into something not only beautiful, but tangible and
entrancing.
What
an amazing gift.
