‘One Too Many’ by Chris Gollon (1953 – 2017), Indian ink drawing on 300gsm Satine A3 watercolour paper, 2016. (£1,200).

Although Chris Gollon was a consummate draughtsman, he did very few drawings, since he literally lived to paint. He preferred to go straight to canvas to make his imagery. (There are films of him painting on chrisgollon.com). If he completed an image in a fully worked up drawing, he would then lose interest in painting it. However, occasionally, for example when there was heavy snowfall in the winter of 2010-2011, and he was unable to get to his studio, he would use Indian ink or charcoal to draw, often making drawings from some of his own paintings. The two brief periods in his career, when he produced several series of drawings, were the aforementioned winter, and also the summer of 2016.

This drawing is inspired by the artist looking back at one of his own paintings entitled ‘One Too Many’, from 1998 (pictured), a period when as a father of a teenage daughter he worried about her going out at night. The original painting, now in a private collection, is featured in art historian Tamsin Pickeral's biography of Chris Gollon: ‘Humanity in Art’ (2010), endorsed by Bill Bryson OBE (available from our online Gallery Shop).