The Chess Players
Derek Carruthers

The delight of this picture is that it is a record of a holiday: the Tuscan sun, a post-lunch game of chess, time suspended, good friends, a sun so bright it throws everything into sharp relief and dissolves distinction between space and solid. It might almost be described as a happy accident. Certainly, it is interesting in that it is witness to the artist's shift from abstraction to figuration; likewise, it is a knowing response to the long history of 20^th century Western art - the patterns and colours are confident and pleasing. Above all, however, this painting is like the best kind of holiday supper - a miracle of pleasure. The only difference is that, in the artist's original frame, this remains on the wall when you're back home.

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