Thomas Dowdeswell the American Series prints collection at The Kane Gallery

The American Series by

Thomas Dowdeswell Catalogue of prints

An Auntie

G publication

Copyright of paintings by Thomas Dowdeswell November 2017- all rights to works remain with the artist.

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The American Series ‘The American Series was developed as a way to digest the uncertainties of the past several months, the re-rise of the right, ignorance, racism, bigotry and blame. Trump's proposed Mexican Wall is one of the greatest motifs someone can give an artist.

We build walls, destroy them, live surrounded by them, are entrapped by them. They suggest a thousand stories. In these paintings I have questioned the true meaning of US democracy by de-starring the flag and reversing the stripes. The figures in the paintings are either brutal and animalistic or shrouded in hoods.

They comment on the cruelty of human beings, the facelessness of banal violence and the subjugation of minorities.’

Thomas Dowdeswell

Sorrow and Loss Sorrow and Loss. Oil on Canvas. 2016. 40'' x 30'' Painted in 2016 for his 'In the Wake of Terror' exhibition Sorrow and Loss has an abstract central figure who's face is featureless but a mass of interlocking colour. The figure is holding the abstract, embryonic body of a child close to its chest. The background is a geometric arrangement of bold colours with the foreground a homage to the battlefield paintings of the Vorticists at the time of the First World War. The image is a motif to pay respect to all the innocent women, children and men who are the victims of conflict across the globe. It is intended to be a universal figure representing all races, ages and sexes.Â

Butcher’s Table Blues Oil on Canvas in a wooden frame painted white and waxed. 49.5’’ x 37.5’’ x 1.5’’. signed in the bottom right hand corner. 2017 Similar themes and structures are continued in Butchers Table Blues.

Again the painting is divided into three planes, lower, middle and upper.

The lower section is a barren desert of sand, soil and concrete. It is a dry open wasteland.

In the central section and inverted stars and stripes form a wall and a barrier. As in the other paintings the stars have been removed from the flag and the stripes inverted as a commentary on the reversal of traditional democratic values.

An abstract tangle of limbs bound by five ropes straddles the wall.

To its right hand side stands a strange alien animal, perhaps awaiting the same fate or perhaps comforting the tangled victim.

In the upper section of the painting we again see the pink figure and the hooded figure at the dining table waiting to be served the bloody cuts of their empty victories. A single light bulb hangs down from the ceiling to the centre of the right hand side as a butcher in a white smock works at a chunk of flesh, the shadow of the table projecting into the upper foreground. To the right hand side of the top right hand corner and cast out from the action, a faceless figure kneels with a shadow behind.

It is uncertain where this figure belongs-to the indulgent diners or are they the next victim of the Wall.

This abstraction hints at the uncertainty many of us feel in the wake of the election of D.J. Trump and how the New World order will pan out. Our destinies are fragile and our identities, both on a personal level and culturally have been blurred and compromised.

Slaughter House Blues Oil on canvas in a white wooden frame painted white and waxed.

Signed in the bottom right hand corner. 49.5’’ x 37.5’’ x 1.5’’. 2017 The painting is divided into three planes, lower, middle and upper. In the lower section two walls protrude towards the audience at diagonals, one from the left and one from the right. Neither wall is complete and the left hand wall is virtually invisible. The pencil marks have been left devoid of paint. This has been done deliberately to suggest the uncertainty and instability of the Trump administration’s desire and promise to build a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico.

In the centre of the canvas an abstract multi-limbed animal/bird/ human figure and its blue, melancholy shadow run skittishly towards the right hand wall in a state of panic, trying to escape their entrapment.

Slightly above this a strange, faceless hood hangs from a noose, to its left is a second dismembered, enchained figure.

In the top third of ‘Slaughterhouse Blues’ a scene of soulless indulgence plays out. To the centre left hangs a single glowing light bulb. Directly below a butcher in a white smock works a slab of pink meat on the butchers block, the shadow of which is projected into the upper foreground.

To the centre right two diners wait at an empty table waiting to be served the cuts from this unknown, pointless slaughter. The naked pink figure has its back to us gazing at the butcher. The second diner is face on with folded arms watching a shrouded waiter disappear with its shadow to the edge of the scene. To the top left hand corner an inverted American flag acts as the motif to the unfolding horror.

Slaughter House Blues is a vehement commentary on the divisive policies of the new Trump administration and how neo-neo Conservatism is going to further emphasise the vast gulf between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots, the socially included and those excluded.

The wall, remaining incomplete, raises important questions about whether it has been left unfinished or has been partially destroyed.

The wild bird-man could represent every member of society as the walls of democracy close in on us and debase any freedoms we still maintain. There are the limbs and dismembered heads of those already victimised and outcast while indulgently and without consideration the faceless elites remain happy and guilt free as they dine freely on the flesh of those who are victims of their short sighted policies.

Climate Change Blues Oil on Canvas 56’’ x 36’’ x 2’’ approx. 2017 signed in the bottom right hand corner.

The second painting in the American Series with the oil paint applied directly to a fine grain un-primed canvas allowing the paint to be applied loosely and quickly, the tones and shades blended by a combination of brush and fingers.

In each of ‘The American Series’ the Stars and Stripes Flag plays a central and pivotal role in the image.

I have deliberately removed the stars from the top left hand corner and flipped the stripes from a horizontal to a vertical position. There are noticeably more stripes than in the original flag. This simple rearrangement poignantly suggests an abstract reversal of traditional democratic values and hints at the unknown framework of a New World Order.

In this instance the flag spans the lower central section of the canvas. The flag is the dividing line of the image. It is a barrier. It is a wall.

An abstract figure, little more than a tangle of limbs, straddles the wall and scales the background and foreground of the painting.

The character was re-interpreted from a horrific still photograph (source unknown) of a starving African child lying on a bed presumably dying. The legs and torso were twisted, elongated and out of recognisable proportions. This abstraction is emphasised to an extreme in ‘Climate Change Blues’. A bloated but skeletal torso bound up by ropes and chains lollops over the wall.

This is a faceless, universal victim.

In the bottom right hand corner a second, almost equally malnourished figure kneels with their heads in their hands weeping.

A dark shadow emphasises the bitter plight.

The essence of the painting and its appropriated title makes reference to the fear of the Trump administrations ultra-right policies, their denial of global warming and their longing to rapidly, thoughtlessly and belligerently burn the hell out of all the remaining stores of fossil fuels regardless to the cost to humanity and the planet.

This arrogant and stupid perspective and ideology has the capacity to push women, children and men to the very brink of self- made, self-destruction putting an end to this great experiment we call civilisation. Soon we could all become that poor, bound figure straddling the wall.

The Wailing Wall part one Oil on Canvas in a wooden frame painted white and waxed. 49.5’’ x 37.5’’ x 1.5’’. signed in the bottom right hand corner. 2017 Similar themes and structures are continued in Butchers Table Blues.

Again the painting is divided into three planes, lower, middle and upper.

The lower section is a barren desert of sand, soil and concrete. It is a dry open wasteland.

In the central section and inverted stars and stripes form a wall and a barrier. As in the other paintings the stars have been removed from the flag and the stripes inverted as a commentary on the reversal of traditional democratic values.

An abstract tangle of limbs bound by five ropes straddles the wall.

To its right hand side stands a strange alien animal, perhaps awaiting the same fate or perhaps comforting the tangled victim.

In the upper section of the painting we again see the pink figure and the hooded figure at the dining table waiting to be served the bloody cuts of their empty victories. A single light bulb hangs down from the ceiling to the centre of the right hand side as a butcher in a white smock works at a chunk of flesh, the shadow of the table projecting into the upper foreground. To the right hand side of the top right hand corner and cast out from the action, a faceless figure kneels with a shadow behind.

It is uncertain where this figure belongs-to the indulgent diners or are they the next victim of the Wall.

This abstraction hints at the uncertainty many of us feel in the wake of the election of D.J. Trump and how the New World order will pan out. Our destinies are fragile and our identities, both on a personal level and culturally have been blurred and compromised.

The Wailing Wall part two Oil on Canvas. 49.5’’ x 37.5’’ x 1.5’’ The painting has been created using oil on stretched, primed canvas on a wooden frame. An initial thin wash has been applied made from phtalo blue, Prussian blue and alizarin crimson. Once dried it gives a solid base to apply the later layers of paint.

The theme of The Wall, Donald Trumps threatened barrier remains a prevalent theme to the painting. There are three walls in the image.

To the left hand side is a wall which resembles the Stars and Stripes flag but notable the stars have been removed from the flag and the stripes have been reversed. This inversion comments on the reversal of traditional democratic values and the blatant threat to the Old World Order. A second wall comprising white blocks stretches down the right hand diagonal of the painting. The white blocks resemble the walls of a prison or perhaps an asylum. A third wall just into the image from the left hand side. It is made of grey blocks and is incomplete suggesting that it hasn’t been finished or half of it has been destroyed.

A brown, grey industrial sky hangs above the scene, illuminated by a single light bulb. The atmosphere seems stale and mephitic.

To the left hand side of the diagonal, in front of the Stars and Stripes wall three hooded figures are trapped in stocks, other hooded figures standing guard beside them. The prisoners and imprisoned are faceless and featureless suggesting what we say, what we do, how we communicate becomes invalid when we submit to deranged policies and misguided beliefs. At the back of the scene an abstract figure has been bound and strung up by three sets of ropes as two ghost like, fleshy ghouls haunt it from above.

In the foreground sit three figures at a dining table. The left hand character points at the most prominent figure in the nearest stocks.

The other two figures are doubled over the table. Are they laughing, or crying. Are they bemoaning the current situation or finding it hilarious?

The painting discusses power, the threat to our traditional values, the venture into the unknown and if we are brave enough to stand up and speak out against prejudice and inequality.

Interrogation Blues Oil on Canvas 2017. 36'' x 24'' x 1.5''. Continuing his series of 'American Series' paintings influenced by Trump's proposed Mexican Wall and the uncertainties of the current world order Dowdeswell portrays an isolated figure surrounded by white walls, tied to a chair and awaiting questioning/interrogation. A single light bulb illuminates the scene, a reversed stars and stripes flag in the background forming the door from which the authorities will walk through. The abstract figure is a faceless mass of limbs , doubled up in confusion, fear and uncertainty.Â

Prints All prints are available at

The Kane Gallery one line

Click here for more information about Thomas Click here to go to on line print gallery

The Kane Gallery The Kane Gallery run by art marketeer and coach Auntie G and is a new venture started this year.

Auntie G says ‘My plans are to feature emerging and established artist in Bristol and with a variety of styles from fine art to low brow, to pop surreal to street. It will be a delicious eclectic mix - reflecting the wealth of talent we have in this creative city. My on line gallery is small but beautifully formed and I’ve lined up some fantastic talent to add to the site over the next few months.

I am thrilled to have been chosen to feature Thomas’ latest body of work which is rich and powerful in it’s imagery and message.’

About Auntie G Auntie G is an experienced marketeer and coach.

With a varied career

having spent fifteen years plus as a leisure, events and arts marketeer followed by another fifteen years in leadership development and training and executive coaching.

She specialises in helping creatives think things through as well as supporting them with promotion and marketing. She also offers a bespoke social media management service including managing social media platforms from instagram, twitter, facebook, linked in to blogging.

This can be on an

ongoing retainer basis or specific work for a particular show.

As an active blogger herself, she interviews Bristol’s local and visiting artists gaining unique insights into backgrounds, processes, thoughts and inspirations of the talented creatives she talks to.

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