Talking Shop Oil on canvas 150 x 120 (approx) 1983
During my studies at Glasgow School of Art, I was drawn to a painting by Degas entitled The Cotton Market, New Orleans, 1872. This is a striking almost monochromatic interior depicting figures in their workplace (see below). I was challenged by the idea of organising a group of figures in the context of a very different kind of workplace. I approached the members of the Philosophy Department at the University of Stirling, one of whom I was married to at the time, and most of them obligingly agreed to participate in my project. I gathered them in a seminar room and without posing anybody, asked them to talk among themselves however they wished – they fell naturally into several groups. Numerous photographs, followed by sketches back in the studio, led to the finished painting. The plan was to reflect the various personalities by their gestures and body language. The poster attached to the wall at the back represents Raphael’s great painting of ancient Greek philosophers, ‘The School of Athens’.
The roll call from left to right:
Andrew Brennan, Peter Lamarque, Murray Macbeath, Alan Millar, Patricia McAuliffe, Neil Tennant, Ian Wilson, Antony Duff, Sandra Marshall
The roll call from left to right:
Andrew Brennan, Peter Lamarque, Murray Macbeath, Alan Millar, Patricia McAuliffe, Neil Tennant, Ian Wilson, Antony Duff, Sandra Marshall