Mask Paintings

These works are paintings that the viewer physically interacts with to fully experience. The internal image is a portrait focussed down to the model’s face and the skin of their torso, but then covering the face is a mask. The mask can be reflective of the model’s travels or ancestry, but it is also a metaphor for the various social roles we adopt in life that bring with them different social masks that often obscure who we are. It is with this mask that the viewer physically interacts, opening it up to reveal the model’s face. With this interaction the viewer is brought into intimate involvement with the model and also with the painting. This viewer involvement is key to the work for it makes the object nature of painting clear and brings time into painting.

 

Keith with crow mask
2014
Oil on wood
72" x 7" x 2.5" closed

Paige with autumn leaf mask
2013
Oil on wood
72" x 7" x 2.5" closed
(private collection)

 

Zoe with baby mask Oil on wood 28" x 5.5 " x 2.5 " (closed) 2013-15 (private collection)

Barry with Aztec mask Oil on wood 30" x 5.5 " x 2.5 " (closed) 2012

 

Jacquie with Mardi Gras pixie mask Oil on wood 29" x 5.5 " x 2.5 " (closed) 2012 (private collection)

 

Paige with autumn leaf mask
2016
Oil on wood
28" x 5.5" x 2.5" closed

Graham with Mexican wrestling mask
2013
Oil on wood
28" x 5.5" x 2.5" closed

Linda with Celtic mask
2014
Oil on wood
32" x 5.5" x 2.5" closed

 

Leslie with Moor carnaval mask
2012
Oil on wood
28" x 5.5" x 2.5" closed

 

Matthias with Spiderman mask
2012
Oil on wood
21" x 5.5" x 2.5" closed
(private collection)

 

Cindy with Kanaloa mask
2012
Oil on wood
26.5" x 5.5" x 2.5" closed

Tina with John Lennon mask
2013
Oil on wood
28" x 5.5" x 2.5" closed
(private collection)

Rachel with tigre mask
2011
Oil on wood
27" x 5.5" x 2.5" closed

 

Richard with African mask
2011
Oil on wood
31" x 6" x 2.5" closed