Capturing what the camera can’t

My brother is the keeper of the Burnett family photographic achieves and he occasionally features excerpts on his blog http://newsfromnowhere1948.blogspot.com.  It is there that I catch glimpses of myself from earlier years.  This photograph dates from the 1970’s and for once I’m behind a camera rather than behind an easel.  The occasion that dragged me back to England was my brother’s wedding.  Incidentally, my brother is a fine photographer in his own right, as you'll see from his blog.

Soon afterwards I was back to painting the Caribbean.  In those days I could find my subject matter in town and village street scenes.  Today’s painting was made towards the end of that period and depicts the flamboyant “Purple Palace” a mock-Moorish building that dominates Road Town, the capital of the British Virgin Islands. 

The painting (actually a detail from the original) illustrates how the brush can capture what the camera can’t.  I regard photography as a distinctive art form.  What leaves me cold are paintings copied from photographs.