I have been working on and off on my image for the theme sleeping rough for a month or so. It had got to the stage I had to make radical decisions – more people or a radical repaint. In the last few days I have taken the plunge and now this is how the painting looks.
Its interesting if you have time to look back at the earlier painting. The old painting is underneath. Now I have to decide how much to intervene . The steps that are a symbol for how far the man has fallen or how difficult getting back to normal life would be. The lights on in the flats intensify the separation of him from a normal life that we all take for granted. While the rain just pours down on his sodden body and the cold creeps into his bones.
Two people hurry home brightly dressed with hoods up and can easily miss the man begging or just ignore him. I will take some of the excess paint off and put more lights in the windows. The questions I have to ask Is to I lighten the building a bit – do I straighten the architecture and do I strengthen the steps?
Richard Ryder - Gaelic Artist 