Saturday Afternoon at the Opera

Oil on wood and canvas

48" x 40 " x 8 "

2007

click for interaction

The life-cast for this painting involved fellow artist Gary; we shared a studio and he volunteered to pose for a painting. Gary is an opera lover and uses vibrant, eclectic colours and forms in his ceramic art; so that shaped the paintings pose and colours. The moveable flat panels are of an opera costume; as they are a form of surface to the person the illusionistic depiction is less of a breach of the picture plane. The images on the inside of the clothing are from operas Gary likes.

Sargent Nude:

Eauvive as Lady Agnew

Oil on wood and canvas

41" x 34.5" x 9"

2002-2006

click for interaction

Sgt. Rock is a painting that completes the narrative cycle hinted at in propaganda  and explores the militarizing of the young. The tattoos on the figure are all of recruiting posters from the Second World War, from Japan, Canada, Germany, Great Britain and the USA. The reverse side of each tattoo uses a newspaper photo to complete the narrative cycle started by the propaganda imagery. The wallpaper pattern is taken from a contemporary Sears Wishbook catalogue for sheets, duvet covers and curtains. The title comes from the comic book series I happily read as a child.

This is the first “mask painting” done and all mask paintings have been of family members so far. This one used my eldest daughter Akasha as the model for the cast. Due to all the books with dragons in them read and the dragon figurines owned the mask had to be dragon for her.