Slip Sliding Away

Medium: Oil paint on canvas and canvas board
Size: 40 × 40.5 × 2.5 cm
Framed: 43 × 43 × 4 cm

The seeds for Slip Sliding Away were planted when I looked across my room and saw a vibrant bowl of fruit and a vase of delicate flowers. One of the flowers was just starting to wilt—its beauty, fleeting—like precious moments in life. Soon the other flowers would follow, then the fruit! What if they could all just merge together and dance in one last hurrah of fiery reds, oranges, and cool pinks – a playful, joyous chaos? It had to be attempted.

While I was painting, Paul Simon’s “Slip Slidin’ Away” kept echoing in my head:

“You know the nearer your destination

The more you’re slip slidin’ away.”

— Paul Simon

This led to the idea of mounting the linen canvas on a plain linen backing board and allowing the paint to bleed onto it.