"Three of a kind beats a pair"
36" x 24", Acrylic on Canvas
SOLD
THE STORY:
“Three of a kind beats a pair”, is an irresistible re-creation of Dogs Playing Poker. In so many ways, this scene represents the variety of characters that live in the world, right down to the perspiring card sharp with an ace in the hole.
Sitting in a bar many years ago, a friend says to me….. “You know what you should do… You should paint pears playing poker”!!!..... And off I went with yet another quirky surrealistic vision in my head.
“Three of a kind beats a pair” is based on the famous 1894 series of artworks called “Dogs Playing Poker” , a series of sixteen oil paintings, and a 1910 painting by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge.
It took years to get my version out of my head, and to have imagery like this floating around my mind in a dream-like status is not a healthy thing. I have to get this stuff out, otherwise I may lose an ear like Van Gogh or end up with a weird mustache like Dali.
Being a Contemporary Surrealist, I am faced with many challenges of originality. Naturally I am flooded with imagery that I have been exposed to over the years from the likes of Salvador Dali, René Magritte, Vladimir Kush, Joel Rea and many others. I use these to inspire me in my own direction, but in the case of “Three of a kind beats a pair” it was just fun to have my own parody of an artwork that has had so much influence on the world.