Since opening last March, Sauce and Ainslie Rose have used the workshop and showcase to meet new friends and create new artworks, but it hasn’t been all beer and skittles for the creative couple. A large part of the challenge has been navigating through the bureaucracy associated with public art and murals. Sauce has worked with over eighty schools and has over a decade of professional experience, but he is still dictated to by public servants who know little if anything about public art. The bureaucracy isn’t usually site specific, that is, most large scale organizations and councils have the same level of paperwork and inane demands, however recent experiences with councils have taken the bureaucracy and flagrant stupidity to a new level.

The concept of still life originated hundreds of years ago, when it was a rarity to have fresh fruit, and thus it was a status symbol to both be able to acquire the fruit and commission an artist’s talents to convey this wealth and power. The imagery often included hidden meanings with the types flowers used or objects featured in early works. This still life encapsulates the vapid approach to the now over-prescribed genre. While creating this work, Sauce spent many hours cursing his desire to paint the picture in the first place. It was an exercise in futility and Sauce became so bored waiting for the oils to dry, he created another landscape painting in the meantime. 

Still Lifeless, oil on canvas, 122cm x 91.5cm. Sauce, 2014.

Oil on Canvas