I paint portraits of film and television characters.
Through the transformation of imagery found in films, television programmes, the internet and magazines, I aim to create a new reality for the film and TV characters I depict. This shift in context allows the viewer to engage in the works on a personal level, using their own store of references and past experiences to add to the works.
I use a similar aesthetic language to the popular culture I am appropriating, such as the bleaching out of pop videos and unblemished perfection of magazine images. The paintings also refer to the type of source material I use, and include the minute abstract shapes formed by the television screen and photographs I work from.
The work aims to explore ideas of desire, reality, identity and art’s relationship to popular culture imagery.
Using oil paint like watercolour, I build up the paintings in thin layers to make the surface glow - an imitation of the cinema screen. The green hue references traditional techniques of painting, where green was used as under-painting to give luminosity to the surface colour. The blue hue suggests the glow of the screen on a viewer.
