Brighton Gin prize:
The World is upside down.

One of these ‘calls for art’ that hit the spot!  Hizze Fletcher at Brush in Brighton, hair salon and art gallery,  had the idea of organising an exhibition involving the new and seductive Brighton Gin.  (Link: Brighton Gin Prize)  As well as being an interesting blend of ‘botanicals’, as they say, it also comes in a very pretty bottle with a pale green label.

I was just about to go away so plunged in, collected an (alas empty) bottle, and did my stuff.  My version involves a ‘Brighton Tea-Gown’, the sort of dress I’d like to be wearing as I sip Brighton Gin on a sun-soaked terrace.

Brighton Tea-Gown, full-sized original version

There’s also a nod to Brighton itself.   The pair of red-striped legs kicking in the air is both an expression of uninhibited joy, and a reference to  the iconic Legs adorning the Duke of York’s theatre, the oldest continuouslyused cinema in Britain.

Brighton Tea-Gown – reverse side

Finally, a more serious side.  The news has been full of the miseries of the refugee/immigration crisis, to which there can be  no simple answer.  A sharp counterpoint to the frivolity of tea-gowns and gin.  The world does indeed seem upside down.

Civil War poster

I visited the lovely town of Battle recently to deliver paintings for my exhibition there.  Details of this to follow shortly.   Among the 1066 -related  exhibits on show at the Abbey – a fantastic place to visit –  I came across a Civil War poster depicting the then turbulent times.   ‘The World Turn’d Upside Down’ – with a pair of kicking legs in the air!  That was it.  The composition was clear.

Label, Brighton Tea-Gown

Label, Brighton Tea-Gown