"8 Ball on the edge", Oil on Panel, 8" x 15"
I found these clean, white stones on a beach in Cyprus while on holiday there. When I got home I made this display on a shelf in my studio (without the 8 Ball) and they sat in this configuration for almost a year before I thought to place the 8 Ball with them and subsequently start a painting.
Ever since seeing Neil Hollingsworth's wonderful paintings of pool balls in a bowl I have been itching to paint one. So, wanting to veer as far away from Neil's style as possible, this composition worked, on all levels, for me. I like the slightly surreal feeling of the pool ball set in what could be an ancient heap of gigantic stones in a vast desert or on a beach.
Painting the 8 Ball was a blast. There's something wonderful about the curved world it portrays . . . a glorious distortion of reality.
