Eccentricus Britannicus has been a long time coming, three years to be precise, three years of planning, creating, writing and generally messing about until an incoherent lump became a streamlined collection.
Essentially we set out to the shops to get a pint of milk and returned with a toilet seat in creation terms
In 2016 Two sketchbooks were filled with ideas over a four month period, then they were torn apart two months later leaving only fourteen pages, the only ones we were happy with. Three months passed with the pages pinned on the wall of the studio where they were gradually reduced to eight. We don't like the number eight so we removed one more and we were left with the final seven in the autumn of 2017. We had our collection, or rather we had a series of basic ideas very much like sketches on the back of a cigarette packet made during a drunken night out where you couldn't hold a pen correctly and went home with someone else's shoes.
It was about this time the panic set in.
Every new collection starts this way; crap drawings, a massive self doubt panic attack at all the work, soul destroying walls of blank canvases and sad lumps of clay that looked unruly and in a mood. We took a deep breath and waded in, a little paddle at first around the edges then in a little further up to our knees. Just as we were getting used to everything our legs were whipped from underneath us and we were dragged into the depths, not to drown, but to splash around in the madness until we could think about nothing else.
If this was a film you would see a clock and a calendar, the clock would whizz around at speed and the calendar dates would be ripped off and scattered into the past but it's not, its real life so time ebbed and flowed according to our progress. Tough days and breakthrough days, happy days and days where we find a live bomb in the garden. Oh? Did I forget to tell you that bit? We were interrupted by this rather startling find after I saw what I thought was a metal star in the ground behind a bush, turns out it was the tail fin of a 9lb bit of ordinance. A slight hiccup involving police and the EOD, its a good job the next 'bump' in the creation process only involved a water pipe blowing out the entire bathroom wall that halted painting for three weeks whilst I decided to either repair it or build an ark.Jayne plugged the water holes best she could, when she had run out of fingers and toes the water decided to exit through the light fittings
Viewing work upside down allows you to work out depth a lot more accuratelyOctober arrived and the finishing touches were being added; each painting once completed is hung upside down in the studio. This allows the eye to lose focus on the subject matter and gives better clarity to see any errors and true depth of a piece. A final flip the correct way round and the noted tweaks were completed. All the work is photographed and then we move from the easel to the computer to write the stories from an assortment of notes created over the last few years. Once written they are added into the design pool and we start work on the brochure.
It's like creating a statue of an elephant from a square bit of granite with the simple instruction of 'chip off everything that doesn't look elephanty'We made it simple; keep it funny, unusual and desirable. Instead it came out as raucous, over the top and collectable, exactly how we expected considering the collection began the same way. It all happened how we wanted it to happen just in a different order and in a more amusing manner. Brochure complete we packaged everything together and made our journey to the publisher for the big reveal.
Join us and become one of the Britannicus Eccentricus, it's the only way to be!Peter & Jayne 2019
'One was amused, the bit about a 'Slutty Sooty' made me roll about with tears in my eyes.'
Queen Victoria, London 1890
'How did they get away with it? If you collect one thing this year make sure its from this collection or you will be cursed!'
Howard Carter, Expert pyramid opener
