Walkin' The Dog:Darren Hayman @ ArtDog.

"Walkin' the dog, just a-walkin' the dog. If you don't know how to do it I'll show you how to walk the dog" - Walkin' The Dog, Rufus Thomas

HE USED TO SHOUT THINGS 

I know Darren Hayman as a musician. As the singer of Hefner and, latterly, as an interesting solo artist who I once saw perform at Dalston's Vortex (a gig that featured a Secret Santa as it was Christmas) and who once recorded an album where each song was dedicated to a different lido in London and elsewhere. Including Brockwell Park and Tooting BEC, my two local lidos.

But I didn't know Darren Hayman as an artist and that's because he's only just moved into visual art. When out walking around London late at night, Hayman considers the beauty, and mystery, of the city after dark and decided to paint it as if viewed by a succession of dog walkers. Better still, these paintings are on display (and on sale, costing roughly £400 each) in a gallery that is about ten minutes walk from my flat, ArtDog. I'd not been before.

BUT THEN HE SAID

THIS IS MY SPOT

WHAT IF WE NEVER SAID IT

They're good too. They're hardly revolutionary. In fact, for the most part, they're quiet, they're pensive and they evoke an all too familiar feeling of walking home late at night. Hayman's given them titles, ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS, that sound a bit like song titles suggesting that the songwriter in him can't be completely escaped and that he wouldn't wish to escape it either.

Walking round late at night, you'll often find a song becoming stuck in your head and I imagine Hayman has the same thing happen to him. Who knows, perhaps he'll even make an album of songs inspired by these images.

I DIDN'T MEAN TO HAUNT YOU

I CAN WAIT

I HAVE TO BUY MORE GREEN PAINT

Here are blocks of flats with rectangles and squares flooding out of the windows with the curtains closed, here is the panorama of the city skyline, here is the tram pulling into the station, and here is the 63 bus (my bus) pulling up at the stop. I wish I could make out which stop it was but I can't despite using that bus hundreds and hundreds of times.

I NEVER UNPACK

I CAN STAY AWAKE

WE'RE NOT ALONE 

Whatever, it was nice to see a 63 bus in an artwork - and it was nice to see flats that looked not unlike my own being portrayed in art as well. Rather nice art. I had a brief chat with the friendly invigilator at the gallery and then I went for a walk. In the sunshine and without a fucking dog.

I HEARD A VOICE