Thursday 17 May 2012

Oil Painting 14 - Waking up to the ceiling light show

The low early morning sun bouncing off the canal gives a magical light show across the wood grain ceiling of the boat, which is a wonderful first sight when we first open eyes in the morning. I thought this unusual side to boat life would be an interesting subject and reminded me of the personal experience subjects of Jeffrey Camp RA after buying his book 'Almanac'.

This subject being so personal, waking up alongside Karen, I was torn between representing myself in bed in the painting, to paint a vision of us as a couple in bed, or to carry on painting 'through my eyes' as I do with the majority of my works, directly conveying what I actually see. The artist who springs to mind when I consider the alternative approach of representing the scene 'outer body' from an imaginary viewpoint looking in at a representation of myself, is the superb London artist, and my tutor at The Princes Drawing School, Timothy Hyman. Hyman often represents himself as a caricature within his works and seems to give us the illusion of looking past him, reflecting his view, but affirming his place and connection with that scene.

tim hyman, 
Tim hyman, 
 See how Hyman represents himself compressed to the edge of the frame, almost like we are seeing from the vantage point of his mind

 Tim Hyman, 


I guess this is exactly the issue that has arose with wanted to represent a scene as personal as waking next to my fiance. Trying to affirm to the viewer that it is me in the bed with her and not them!

No comments:

Post a Comment