So, in following up a thought, I've just had an email from Kit's wife inviting me to a private exhibition in his studio. She asked me about my interest in KW's work ....
Dear Eleyne
Many thanks for your e-mail.
It will be a privilege to attend such an invitation and my details will be at the bottom of this note.
My awareness of Kit comes from Masquerade. We now know this was an event that affected a generation, and being hardwired by the adventures and curiosities that we have as children, we never shake them off.
Many times down the years I've Googled Kit's name to try and find new images but it is unsatisfactory. I need to do better.
I was not brought up walking round art galleries and much static art leaves me a little disengaged. I spent my formative years watching episodes of The A Team and Knight Rider. I think that's where I got my moral compass!
To tell you the truth, I have never purchased a substantial original painting. Somehow a lot of the joy I see in life is in the simplest of things. I did a little personal blog before Christmas about giving "worthless" things, describing them essentially as gifts of "thingless worth". This was just an inelegant attempt to try to describe the value in little things. But that is not the full story of life. And the layered tricky complexities in a single image, are equally and oppositely appealing to me.
I think there is a porcelain edginess to Kit's work that makes those original paintings last so long in my head. There's something about the style, and I couldn't explain it like a connoisseur would, but something that primally connects. I wonder if perhaps edginess is my favourite quality in all forms of art – comedy, drama, music, and, well, art. When you mix that with childhood memories of the world's most exciting treasure hunt, well, it's an irresistible force of texture.
Many years ago I found a copy of Bamber Gascoigne's The Quest for the Golden Hare in an old bookshop in Newcastle. I read it and gave it to my Dad one Christmas. It was years before I found another copy for myself. I think I imported the one in my bookcase from America in the end.
My Dad died last week and now it's a New Year.
I got to thinking maybe it's not impossible to have a Kit Williams of my own on my wall.
What a tale that would make.
Best regards .........
