Vic Reeves told today how he paints in his shed, putting his flights of imagination onto canvas when they are too mad to go on television.
Speaking as a new exhibition of his work opened in London, the star of TV shows Shooting Stars with Bob Mortimer and The Ministry Of Curious Stuff said he did all his work simply by “putting images together”.
He added: “Sometimes I think I like an image but it’s not going to work anywhere other than a canvas. Sometimes they’re too far out to get on the screen.”
He said he often worked in the large shed in his garden near Ashford, Kent: “I squeeze it in. I get a kick out of it. I like to produce something every day. I get attached to them and don’t want to get rid of them. But I can’t store all of them in my house.” Artworks will be for sale.
The comedian, 54, has always painted. When younger he attended a local art school, and sneaked into lectures at Goldsmiths college in London after it rejected him. He said his first comedy success, Vic Reeves Big Night Out at the Goldsmith’s Tavern in New Cross, was conceived as an artistic performance piece. “Coming up with ideas, sketches, whatever, and coming up with ideas for paintings, it’s all the same thing. It’s just a different medium,” he said.
Hot Valve Leak: Visual Ramblings of Vic Reeves is at the Strand Gallery, John Adam Street, WC2, until February 23.
