‘A work in progress…’

(Click on thumbnails to see a larger image.  There are a few notes below the images, and a short movie clip below them. )

Notes:  The photograph of Joe’s father, John Bain, may be compared with Joe’s ‘Imagining John Bain,’ on the Paintings page.  -  The drawing of Frances (Preece) Bain, Joe’s mother, is the only image we’ve found.  -  The Marlborough image is taken from a college group photograph kindly forwarded by Terry Rogers. – ‘Graduation, 1952′ shows Joe standing with James Cellan-Jones and his mother, Mrs Cellan-Jones.  On the back of the photograph J.C-J has written: ‘Cher Joseph, Quel shriek, luov, J.’ – ‘Tete de Joe’ appears to be a life-mask, in plaster: when and why it was made unknown. Joe kept it behind a curtain on a windowsill. – ‘The Epicurean’ was an occasional subversive Stowe School publication, usually banned after successive resurrections. – ‘Am I Seeing Things?’ is an example of the kind of photograph from which Joe would later work up a painting, as is, ‘Artist flashes subject,’ one of many Polaroids related to paintings (See: ‘Paintings’ page). – The two images captioned, ‘Part of the Scenery’ 1 and 2 were presumably cheeky insertions into stage sets, probably at Winchester: any information about them will be welcome.  The first, ‘St Josephus’, over five feet high, is painted on transparent plastic sheeting on a wooden frame.  Latterly Joe hung it on the wall opposite his desk in his Tenby study.  The second image, roughly painted on board, is even larger, and its survival until now seems even more miraculous. – Below is the only clip of Joe on the move yet found:

A short video of Joe

Click the picture below to play, or download a better quality copy here (.mov) or here (mp4).