Grandads Secret
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This painting was inspired by a very boring uncle I had, as a kid you see grownups as two distinct types, good fun and boring.
One year I think my parents wanted a bit of time to themselves, so they conned me into staying at my Auntie and Uncles in the country during the school holidays, at first I thought it was great all this space to play in, ponds, streams trees etc, but there was nobody to play with, and we were miles from anywhere, or so it seemed to me.
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All my auntie did was boring things like tidy up and make meals like they do, and my uncle sort of shuffled around smoking his pipe and muttering things under his breath before he disappeared into what he called his study.
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I was seriously convinced that I was about to die of boredom, I was starting to believe I was in a parallel universe where time stood still; days appeared to last for weeks.
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One day I was on my way back from one of my forays when I noticed a rather overgrown lean to on the side of the house; I’d never noticed this before as it was so well camouflaged with ivy and bushes.
So I decided to have a good explore, (the devil makes work for idle hands) the undergrowth was so bad it took me ages to inch down the side of the building towards a window.
The window was caked in tree sap and green lichen, after scraping with the edge of a coin I managed to create a clear patch I could look through.
Well my Uncle certainly wasn’t boring anymore; in his so called study was a lovingly restored 1917 Indian board-racer, I had never seen anything so awesome in my life the bike resembled a piece of delicate sculpture it was beautiful...
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I told my uncle what I thought of his hidden treasure, from then on he showed me the bike and started telling me about his motorcycle exploits when he was young and during his time in the army, after that he wasn’t such a boring uncle after all...No sooner had the holiday started than it was all over...
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The bike is a classic Harley Electro glide and the little girl is Freya, who my partner looked after at the time, let’s hope she appreciates Grandad as much as he appreciates his bike...
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Airbrush inks, pencil crayon, acrylic and pastel..