And the Raven, Never Flitting, Still Is Sitting, Still Is Sitting1

" At my studio back in Cardiff, the walls swarm with a cast of hermits, angels, penitents, devils, wild beasts, and anchorites, " wrote Clive Hicks-Jenkins during a visit to Prague. " They are made of roughly painted card, jointed for articulation and capable of surprisingly varied and unlikely positions, rather like elaborate shadow puppets. They were constructed as studio aids to achieve a more expressive use of the human fi gure and free me from the choreographer's understanding of the body. " A native of Wales, Hicks-Jenkins spent the fi rst 25 years of his working life as stage designer, choreographer, and theater director. The fi gures in Gothic Bohemian paintings in the National Gallery in Prague reminded him of the population on his own studio walls. He saw in these fi gures a kind of " postural distortion, " affi rming his notion that " This is not about fl esh and the corporeal body. " He was born in Newport and showed early artistic talent , which he cultivated in London at the Rambert Dance Company and The Italia Conti Academy. He traveled widely in Europe and America, touring with dance and theater troops, but settled back in Wales in the 1980s to focus on his love of painting. His studio, the " battery, " he shares with Pipistrelle bats, which " roost in the roof space above and make frequent forays to pepper my paintings with their droppings. I don't mind. I enjoy their company. " Hicks-Jenkins' painting has been described as fi gu-rative, a term now encompassing any form of modern art characterized by references to the real world. " I am not at all captivated by 'likeness' or the capturing of it. Most of the fi gures in my paintings are of 'types' rather than spe-cifi c, identifi able sitters. " He has experimented with various styles, using elements from them in his own work, which is always changing. " I continue to lay myself open to the currents that carry me in new directions.... Every time I reach a point where skill becomes even close to practiced and reliable, I feel the urge to derail the train. " Hicks-Jenkins' artistic talent was nourished by his years in the theater. " The stage is a revealing space, much like a painting. All the attention is focused on the limited area, and everything within it …