“Live and let live"

egg tempera on panel, 32 x 40 cm, October 2023

Will show in Royal Society of British Painters 2024

“Live and let live, be and let be, Hear and let hear, see and let see. . . . Live and let live and remember this line: ‘Your bus’ness is your bus’ness and my bus’ness is mine.’” ~ Cole Porter

For this still life I had a title before I even began because the objects felt so random and the painting was really about the colour but I wanted meaning. What brought them all together for me was their otherness and the harmony that otherness reflected back to the viewer.

At first I thought of McCartney’s “When you were young, and your heart, was an open book. You used to say, live and let live.” ~ Paul McCartney but settled on Cole Porter instead. I listened in horror to what was happening in the middle east and cajoled my figures and colours to their most harmonious.

Perhaps these quotes are even more apt. “Live and let live is the rule of common justice.” ~ Roger L’Estrange “Tell the politicians and the hustlers: live and let live.” ~ James Brown. This painting is framed St Ives style in a limed white frame