24/06/2018

I've been trying to get a fluid dreaminess to my figure-painting, so the images look a bit emulsified. This is so when I paint colour on top it evokes the over-painting of old photos, and gives the painting surface another dimension. Success seems to depend on brushes, and sometimes I get a joyous feeling in my hand that I can do nothing wrong, that the paint will come out right.

Queen Victoria was always a byword for prudery, but it's become clear recently that she was a horny woman with a strongly romantic streak who hated racism and found some of her Oriental subjects exotically attractive. She was an early 'Pink Lady'. This painting gives her a joke title (What';s wrinkled and brown and goes up and down?) and half a joke in a speech bubble - 'What do you call a man...'. I did this to give the painting autonomy and a little jauntiness.

She often appears in later photos with this gauzy white lump ornament on her head, like an ectoplasmic turban, and the pearls gleam at her neck so there is some shimmer to her appearance. She often looks deeply sad, so maybe these jokes will cheer her up.