Shockmee

Exercising with Her Majesty the Queen is the latest in a series of irreverent takes on the lives of the famous by Dorset artist David Shockmee. Its brief appearance at the Corfe Mullen Winter Exhibition offered a brief moment of humour amidst an otherwise routinely dull display.

Exercising with Her Majesty the Queen is the latest in a series of Professor Thrupiece themed artworks by Bradpole painter and Dorset Royal Academy member David Shockmee who is well-known both locally and regionally for his wickedly humorous portrayals of famous people in imaginary embarrassing situations. His recent work Mrs Threadbone Takes a Dump won first prize at the Corfe Mullen Winter Exhibition before being bought by a private collector and disappearing from view. Much of Mr Shockmee's art enjoys a similar fate, making individual showings rare and collected exhibitions well nigh impossible to mount.

Corfe Mullen Winter Exhibition curator Pattie O'Heater believes that all of this merely serves to intrigue the general public as well as artificially inflate Mr Shockmee's value. "All of this merely serves to intrigue the general public as well as artificially inflate Mr Shockmee's value", she said, "People seem to be prepared to pay good money to make these representations disappear though we don't know for the life of us who's buying them. They simply evaporate as it were."

Mr Shockmee's works tend to disappear almost as soon as they are hung.

Asked if she thought Mr Shockmee had a deliberate modus operandi, she demurred. "I am not sure what you mean by that", she said, "I didn't do Greek at school". [She evidently didn't do Latin either [Ed].] Asked if she thought Mr Shockmee had a deliberate habit of working, Ms O'Heater readily agreed: "Oh we certainly think he knows what he's doing. He has latched on to an idea and it definitely works for him. Last year Roy's Raunchy Dream Adventure went for £150,000, whilst Mr Threadbone and Enrique attracted a £350,000 price tag. The strange thing is there were three figures in the Roy painting and only two in the Mr Threadbone, so it doesn't make sense in straightforward bang-for-buck terms. But then, Art's a funny thing. Still, there's definitely some kind of a pattern here if you look carefully enough". "Perhaps one for Sir Rising Crimewave and the RDC", she joked, "but not if you want an answer before next Christmas!"

In the meantime, anyone keen to see the remaining exhibits in the WInter show has until December 1st to do so. Admission is on a strictly first come first served basis [200 at a time] and, given the lack of alternative warm indoor accommodation in Corfe Mullen in November, is likely to prove popular.