Oil on Oval Linen Canvas
I was looking forward to working on a bespoke handmade oval canvas and exploring how the unusual shape could lend itself to a portrait…. then the pandemic hit and all of a sudden, even before face masks became mandatory, one started to appear.
As a challenge I actually painted the mask as you see it - upside down, simply for the additional focus required. This began to symbolise the phenomenal amount of money that materialised and was treated as if worthless to get us through the crisis, like the disposable masks.
I found painting the notes a fantastic challenge, choosing the more complex side of the notes and painting some of them in the negative to create the desired finish. Money is what people aspire to have but, in this case, it unfortunately had its limitations.
I wanted to portray a lifetime of hard labour, exposed to the elements with no rest or shelter, which I depicted in the wind-burnt skin. This categorises my lifelong struggle to function daily with a debilitating condition which attempts to inflict a harsh life.
During lockdown I found that life was going at a pace that was suddenly manageable. I was able to breath and the pain became masked. All of a sudden everything was in slow motion, like the discarded money in the piece and the silence was deafening.
The man depicting the torment has nothing to focus on any more and is powerless. No amount of money can return his power. He is lonely, broken and defeated like my pain which for a short while had nothing to fight against, because the world had stopped.
Painted when I was taking Morphine. No amount of money can stop illness nor mask you from the pain.
—
Original: SOLD
77 × 137cm
Framed Print: Available for Order
Oil on Oval Linen Canvas
I was looking forward to working on a bespoke handmade oval canvas and exploring how the unusual shape could lend itself to a portrait…. then the pandemic hit and all of a sudden, even before face masks became mandatory, one started to appear.
As a challenge I actually painted the mask as you see it - upside down, simply for the additional focus required. This began to symbolise the phenomenal amount of money that materialised and was treated as if worthless to get us through the crisis, like the disposable masks.
I found painting the notes a fantastic challenge, choosing the more complex side of the notes and painting some of them in the negative to create the desired finish. Money is what people aspire to have but, in this case, it unfortunately had its limitations.
I wanted to portray a lifetime of hard labour, exposed to the elements with no rest or shelter, which I depicted in the wind-burnt skin. This categorises my lifelong struggle to function daily with a debilitating condition which attempts to inflict a harsh life.
During lockdown I found that life was going at a pace that was suddenly manageable. I was able to breath and the pain became masked. All of a sudden everything was in slow motion, like the discarded money in the piece and the silence was deafening.
The man depicting the torment has nothing to focus on any more and is powerless. No amount of money can return his power. He is lonely, broken and defeated like my pain which for a short while had nothing to fight against, because the world had stopped.
Painted when I was taking Morphine. No amount of money can stop illness nor mask you from the pain.
—
Original: SOLD
77 × 137cm
Framed Print: Available for Order