Artist and Musician - Chris O’Doherty (also known as Reg Mombassa) has been exhibiting his figurative paintings, drawings and prints at Watters Gallery since 1975. The subject matter of these works consists of rural and suburban landscapes or genre pictures with religious, political and popular culture themes.

Art Theory - Reg Mombassa

When a monkey is born it will proceed to effortlessly produce art of high quality. Humans, themselves a type of foul-mouthed ape, have been inspired by this to produce art of their own, although it is of dubious quality when compared to that of the ape world. Our art is over complicated by our dysfunctional civilization with all its hideous violence, smug triumphalism and cheesy sentimentality.

Many professional artists are too dazzled by the pompous high seriousness and tedious theory of the art world to produce good work. Because the production of art is one of the more ridiculous activities practiced by humans, along with sex and dancing, it is best left to those misfits and outsiders who are less constrained by the rigors of normality. The best art is produced by children, mad people, prisoners, simpletons and rural peasants.

Art is good. It makes you happy. Art is a frightened, wet animal howling at the moon. It is ranting, futile gestures, gobs of paint and plaster hurled at wall and floor. Art is worth a lot of money. Art is a legitimate escape from the tedium of the factory or the supermarket. It helps people to avoid the real world. Art is a reflection of the glory of the visible world and a garbled commentary on the internal and invisible worlds. Art is a picture no artist could paint. It is a pretty cottage, glowing in the twilight. Art is a length of severed intestine glistening on the asphalt after a brutal traffic accident.

Art is a constant struggle to overcome the technical difficulties of accurately rendering a galloping stallion or the smoke from a chimney or a women’s face (without buggering up the eyes). To do good art you have to think like a monkey, drink like a horse and dress like a clown.