Paper

'Paper,' Johnny stressed, ' is incredibly,' pause for emphatic, full-on stare and further stare, 'important! It dictates how paint behaves - how you behave.'

We were talking about Matisse, one of Johnny's great mentors and someone to whom Johnny has returned to repeatedly: for understanding; teaching; enlightenment; moral support.

Two years ago, Johnny was in communion with Matisse and there were a lot of fishy paintings emerging, which are Johnny's homages to Matisse. Johnny's dilemma, was how to represent Matisse's cut-outs.  To cut them out, he felt was inappropriate, so he decided to paint them.  'Have you ever tried to paint a cut-out?'  he asked.
I confessed not.
'It is incredibly difficult to paint a cut out shape to look authentic,' he explained, 'and then, by accident, I discovered that the paper I was working on was veneered - a good quality top layer bonded to a poorer quality under layer.  Well, I was painting away and by accident nicked the top layer.  I discovered that I could peel the top layer off and reveal a perfectly white underneath.  I painted a flower - quite roughly and then carefully cut out precise petal shapes with a scalpel it was the solution to  the dilemma of the fish - to paint or cut - this did both, but differently!

Matisse's socks and fish

'Jesus, I said to myself - I want some more of this paper.  It came from Wiggin Temple in Leeds, so I went to buy some.  The smallest quantity they would sell me was a hundred sheets.  So I sold a painting and bought the paper.

'But,' he continued, mood more despondent, 'they'd changed the manufacturing process and I couldn't peel the top layer off ...'