TIM BAKER

I don't want to start any blasphemous rumours
But I think that God's got a sick sense of humour
And when I die, I expect to find him laughing.

- Depeche Mode

Sometimes my sick sense of humour comes to the fore, especially at times like this. There are quite a few boat trip, boat, kayak and paddle-board hire companies on the river, and COVID-19 meant a lot of them shut up shop for the summer. They came back with a bang in August, even though I think encouraging people to spend time in a small boat might not be the best?

Anyway I saw the sign “Boat Trips” next to the sunken holed upside down wreck of a boat and laughed, and had to draw that. While I was doing it a heron came along to fish for the small black minnows that are legion around there, so he joined the submerged party as well! Very much a comment on the times.

Incidentally as I love to draw and paint places I’ve painted from, as a sort of fractal artistic Blade Runner zoom, this is Turks Pier is where I painted the Kingston Bridge, and just across from it is another wreck of a barge which I painted as well and you can see in the foreground of the Kingston Bridge piece. The swans as well as the herons and coots love these wrecks as places to chill.

I haven’t drawn much from the other side of the river that much, and so ventured along there and decided to draw/paint a picture of the cranes – yes cranes are getting like benches in my work – over the area by The Ram pub and Woody’s bar.

I love the composition in this, and it became literally reflective with an accidental self portrait, and the Depeche Mode song ‘Blasphemous Rumours’ came on my headphones and it summed up recent times for me… I don’t believe in God or gods but I do think if there is a god he or she is pissing themselves at the chaos they have caused.

The picture sums up for me progress – but at what cost?