The Hunger for Intimacy - 47 x 62 cm - acrylic on paper
2020 was a year of contractions and expansions of our liberties. Wearing masks has become second nature while it once seemed an imposition. We have adopted new practices and modified our behaviour to get through this crisis.
Being confined and unconfined - we ebb in and out, from being solitary to social, and back again. Veiled and unveiled. Starved of the intimacy of friends, family and lovers, we bridge the gap through whatever means we can.
‘Unconfined’ has been my way of exploring intimacy and celebrating embodiment.
Blonde Odalisque, after François Boucher - 73 x 100 cm - oil on canvas
The Bathers - 47 x 62 cm - acrylic on paper
I became interested in compositions with multiple bodies and intimate portraits and this made me re-engage with art history - looking for depictions of the body that were celebratory and unashamed. I was interested in making new versions of old themes while also seeing the present from a classical perspective.
Unveiled, unclothed, revealed. Skin next to skin.
To find source material I also looked outside the art world, to pornography. Translating graphic images into paint is like applying a filter to a lens. I show you what I see.
I am not interested in the idea of the static body as object - but more the body as self aware and sensory.
The body of desire and longing. Of sensuality and discovery.
There is something very honest about desire. Desire is hunger - is instinct. A craving for connection and escape from isolation.
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, after Manet - 100 x 130 cm - oil on canvas
The End of Seduction - 60 x 80 cm - acrylic on card
“We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.” Anais Nin