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THE LEATHER JACKET. PHILIP LYNOTT. 2020.

Every now and then I think it’s time for a new reminder of the memory of the genius who was my friend and creative partner, the late, great Philip Lynott.

This one came out of nowhere, from a memory of a time when Philip decided I needed a new leather jacket just like his. If memory serves me well I think everyone in the band -and all the roadies -got one too.

I was staying with Philip in his beautiful house in Kew Gardens, London, in the early 80s, on a bright summer’s day, kicking a ball around with him and a few of the guys in the garden while Caroline drummed up some food for us.
We were planning a trip into Central London to do some clothes shopping as Philip wanted to buy me one of those cool leather jackets for myself.

When it was time to go into town Philip felt out of sorts so I headed off with Tex, his driver and mate, in the cool black Merc Philip owned but never drove -except once as far as I know, and that’s a tale of a night he ended up in Brixton the worse for wear.
Anyway, we drove into Soho where the leather shop was and I ended up with that beauty of a jacket.

That leather jacket was one of my most prized possessions and I loved it, I even used it as part of an album cover to show Philip a mockup rough for a studded version in artwork. This was one of a number of rough ideas for the next album titled ‘Trouble Boys’, which unfortunately never saw the light of day.

The photo here is a Polaroid photo using my son Conánn as the model.

Polaroid of the jacket with painted lettering.

Unfortunately, when Conánn, who loved the jacket too, wore it to a local house party it was stolen and never seen again, but that’s life.

Last month while I was working on yet another project that train of thought led me to this idea for a painting.
I could see the work in my mind’s eye so I dug out a few reference photos from my black photo bag of Lizzy reference pix the same pix I have kept since the days when we all worked together.
Every time Philip saw a photo he liked he posted it over to me so I have quite a few.
Philip and the management were great for sending me tons of photos, often just as soon they were shot for himself and the band, so even now I’m never short of good reference material.

Rough sketch of the concept. Philip sent me a cover of Marvel’s ‘Ghost Rider’ comic and I added the skull just to see if it worked but we needed permission from the copyright holders, Marvel Comics, so that was the end of the skull and the concept.

I rooted and found a few cool band photos with Philip in that same jacket and started mapping the work out on tracing paper.

I remember thinking that this should be different, this should say something about grace and race, so I traced the image onto a canvas instead of paper or board and got going on the solid black areas making them flat black instead of a more three-dimensional look.

Once I made that simple decision the painting just flew like a bird and in a matter of two days it was finished and I was happy with the result.
The work is acrylic Ivory Black with some detailed pen work on the face and hair and a minuscule amount of pencil work on the jacket for effect.

Normally I spend a bit of time second-guessing myself, being hyper-critical and annoying, even to myself. This time I just thought ‘That’s it. Done.’

This work is deliberately monotone but it begged to have a simple flesh tone added so there are now two versions, the first monotone, the second with flesh tone, added simply because Philip was such a proud black Irishman who loved the colour of his skin, growing up in an almost entirely white country but a country he loved beyond words.
When the canvas with the flesh tone is finished I will post it here too ☺

So there ya go, another tribute to my old pal, that charismatic genius I was so lucky to collaborate with -and to have such a close friendship with for those amazing Thin Lizzy years, Philip Lynott.
The Man Himself.