Ben Luke

And on that, one of the things that I find really powerful about the work is the way that the figures reappear.

But there's often a kind of absurdity or unorthodoxy about how you depict the figure.

For instance, you seem to enjoy depicting supine figures, figures that are...

flat on their face, you know.

But I know also, having read your notes and been deeply moved by them, actually, that one of the sources for that was actually a really horrific story about a friend that had died and imagining the discovery of his body and so on.

So, again, that's the sort of memory aspect.

But, again, you're transforming it into different moods through the work so that some of those paintings actually are quite absurd or even funny.

Yeah.

But then knowing that there's this kind of gravity to the original source somehow tethers it to something else.

And I suppose that's a really powerful thing that painting can do.

I mentioned absurdity there.

Another thing I see a lot of in your work and the titling of them, for instance, and also the way that you write about them, is that there's loads of delight, actually.

You know, there's a response to the world that is as enthusiastic as it is inquiring, if you know what I mean.

Yeah.

And I think that's a wonderful thing about the work, actually.

There is space to be delighted by what you're observing or thinking about.

So making is a pleasurable act.

Let's move on to the questions that we ask all our guests.

Who was the first artist whose work you loved?

And there's a painting in the current show, which is near where we're sitting now, which is called I Thought I Saw an Eagle, which clearly evokes Hunters in the Snow, right?