The image below is one of the extended backdrops I’ve created using early 20th century studio portraits.
It has, I think, a connection with other recent work (below) which I’ve been making using graphite powder and oil, not only in its look, but also in the fact these images are both unreal landscapes. The image above is a portion of a studio backdrop which has been extended in Photoshop. That below was arrived at through manipulation of oil and graphite.
The third image below is a screenshot from a video I made called ‘The Gone Forest‘. Again there are similarities between this work and the images above, not only in its look, but also in what it shows.
It’s part of a landscape, one which once existed, but which is now a part of the past. In essence, this landscape is unreal in that it no longer exists; it isn’t a place we can go to except, as in the case of the images above, within our imaginations.
This fourth image is one of numerous shadows I have painted in woodlands using Chinese brushes and ink. It is like part of a lost language; a word created and written in the moment, describing that moment. In effect it represents what was ‘now’; the nowness of a lost moment.
Given the fact these look like Chinese/Japanese writing, I looked at using scrolls as a medium; incorporating both the painted image using oil and graphite as well as one of the characters painted in the woods.
