Catcha Fyah!
Reggae Stars; 2021, Douglas Lyell
Crisis
They say the sun shines for all
But-a yin some people world, it never shine at all
They say love is a stream that will find its course
I mean, some-a people think life is a dream
So they making matters worse
But no matter what the crisis is
No matter what the crisis is
Doing it, doing it, doing your thing
(Give Jah all the thanks and praises)
Giving it, giving it, giving it, giving it
(Give Jah all the thanks and praises)
So, so, so much been said, and then so little (been done) little been done
They still killing, killing the people
And they, and they having (havin' their fun) havin'-a, havin'-a lots of fun
Killing the people, oo-yoo, (having fun) having their fun
They just want to be the leader
In the house of the rising sun
But no matter what the crisis is
Oh, no, oh, no no no what the crisis is
Do your
Live it up, live it up, live it up, live it up (give Jah all the thanks and praises!)
Live it up, live it up, live it up, live it up (give Jah all the thanks and praises)
They say the sun shines for all
But-a yin some people world, it never shine at all
They say love is a stream that will find its course
I mean, some-a people think life is a dream
So they making matters worse
No matter what the crisis is
No matter what the crisis is
Do it
Live it up, live it up, live it up, live it up (give Jah all the thanks and praises)
Live it up, live it up, live it up, live it up (give Jah all the thanks and praises)
(Give Jah all the thanks and praises)
His mercies endureth for ever, yeah
(Give Jah all the thanks and praises)
Oh, children, come on, and give Jah
(Give Jah all the thanks and praises)
Children, come on, and give Jah
(Give Jah all the thanks and praises)
Reggae Stars...
The road to where I am now has been long and literally tortuous. I began painting around 1985 whilst squatting in Tottenham north London. At first I only painted still lifes and interiors, but my work was mechanical, anonymous and conservative until I enrolled on the foundation course at Waltham Forest College. There, under the guidance of Anne Rook and another tutor called Keith, my work became larger more varied, interesting and creative. I almost got into Chelsea College but at the interview my work was a little unwieldy. In those days I worked on large sheets of Fabriano paper but I was unaware of the way I taped it to the wall for them to view. Meanwhile I also attended classes at the Sir John Cass College of art in Whitechapel, where I was introduced to clay modelling, plaster work and the welding together of armatures for sculpture. I did a lot of life drawing too. It’s a great shame that the Sir John Cass has closed, it was a brilliant place for supplementary classes, and my education was free at this time. I was also taught by the best tutor in London, the venerable Cecil Collins at Central School. Many words could be written about the goodness of this man and his teachings, he seems to have a hypnotic hold on his students which I was very sensitive to. Some of his methods were like gestalt exercises, and I became more sensitive altogether in my drawing, but his methods wouldn’t do today, people would think some of his exercises rather old fashioned. In 1989, instead of going to Chelsea I was sent to Reading to wreak havoc. I began to think that everything I heard in the media was subliminally about me or aimed at me, I don’t think I told anyone, because I knew they would think I was mad.
My mental health deteriorated in Reading because I missed London so much, and I had a feeling that every time I left my space, people photographed my work clandestinely. This put pressure on me to perform in my space and I felt that I constantly had to outdo myself. Later on when I worked in a garage I also had the feeling that even then I was being photographed and spied upon; such is the surveillance culture in Reading. Each time I tried to leave the place there seemed to be something in the way to stop me. I did learn things there and had some good laughs with some of the students, but I was so poor that I never really produced anything special, at the uni, despite a great deal of hard work. Altogether I spent sixteen years in Reading, I had two garages to work in one after the other and away from the straitjacket of the uni I managed to do some fairly good work using oils, gloss, acrylic and Japlac. These paintings were mainly concerned with “work” and the people who do most of the manual labour. It was during this period that I realised that the way that I worked in itself was conditioned by manual labour, and by the unemployed labourers I socialised with. At the time I was into the alien mythos, so I added UFOs to my paintings, to illustrate the polarities of society. Billionaires probably fly around in UFOs whilst they watch the people struggling to live down below. In 2005 I went to Coventry to do a MA. I was amazed at the interview by the large traditional easels that the department had, and the personal knowledge the tutor had regarding me. Towards the end of the one year course we had the whole painting studio to work in, myself and another four for five students. They were very good at producing shows at Coventry and I thought that their art department was much better than Readings; it’s facilities were far superior. I again had mental health problems because I didn’t like my space which was again right next to the door so that people could peer in and make remarks as they came and went from the studio.I quite liked Coventry but not my accommodation.
In 2009 I moved to Porthleven, Cornwall, a country I have always loved. I sat down in The Ship Inn before I actually moved here, and planned my artistic campaign of action. I decided to do ten years of oil painting based on my immediate, beautiful environment. So for ten years, I painted on a small scale in oils. I did seascapes, views of the harbour, still lives and views of the coastline. My work has always been informed by abstraction, and many of these works were semi- abstract, and heavily textured.
In 2013 I had three shows in New York, but I wasn’t very happy with them; I still felt that I wanted to work much bigger and more physically, but this was impossible using oils, in the amount of space I had, so in 2018 I started to work in acrylic and gloss again, so as not to use up as much space for drying my paintings. I used the silhouette of St. Michael’s mount as a motif to anchor a series of semi- abstract paintings and I did paintings of “crabber” boats. I showed seventeen of these paintings at Redwing Gallery Penzance. I was moderately happy with this show, but I realised that I probably wouldn’t get anywhere doing pictures like these, so during that show in 2019 I decided that the next thing to do would be portraits of reggae stars, as my friends are into reggae and so am I. Also I am always disappointed when I engage with the fine art crowd due to the lack of people of colour. These paintings can be viewed as “pop art” even though they are really informed by my use of oils. I am aware that they use new techniques and aren’t executed in the way that that is currently conventional; I have carried over what I learnt using oils into my new acrylic techniques.
The Black Lives Matter movement began a few months after I began this project. I feel that these pictures are all the more relevant now. I have long since discarded the high falutin, elitist theories that I learnt at university. I consider myself to be woke, with a global outlook. I have never forgotten where I come from and who I am. Conservative and Labour no longer interest me . I won’t vote Tory because of the way they treated the miners and steel workers during the eighties, and I won’t vote Labour because of their nazi attitude towards the mentally ill and the way they always crush any direct action. If a party existed composed mainly of people of colour, that protected human and civil rights with lots of human rights lawyers as candidates, then I would certainly vote for such a party. But what can I do to help create such a party?
The sixties aphorism “think global act local” is my motto, and I won’t forget the international brotherhood of miners who work under terrible conditions especially those in Africa; they need your help and our help to free them from this slavery, and improve their conditions . These are the reasons I have chosen to paint reggae artists; they have the same sensibility as me, and are always thinking of their brothers and sisters who are not yet free! Let us hope that these pioneering artists aren’t forgotten!
My paintings are for sale. Please email me at douglaslyell@yahoo.com if you are interested in my paintings
Please view my sister website at www.douglaslyell.uk
