Portraits in oil on canvas and pastels.

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About : "Portrait with white lilies"

A balancing act between the real and the unreal.

I would like to say a few words about "Portrait with white lilies" because of the rather complicated process that was used to create it. In this work I was given a very specific remit in terms of content. All the elements in the painting were pieced together from resource material supplied by the client, each element having it's own particular and important meaning to the client.

The painting is actually made up of separate photographs of the client and the dog and a number of photocopies of rather old illuminations from medieval manuscripts. I then pieced them together digitally by layering one element on top of the next to create the final composition. For example, the castle in the background was from one illumination and the trees from another, the lectern and the lilies in the foreground were from two other illustrations which were then positioned within the church. The image was then transferred to canvas where I could integrate the elements to a much greater degree in terms of color and composition.

This was one of my more unusual commissions and was something of a challenge because it required the blending of two very different things; realistic photographs with the medieval. This to me is a good example of how art mirrors life in concept, design and intention. A balancing act between the real and the unreal.