A show of emotion - triptych

 

A recurring dream for me at difficult times in my life has been the sea engulfing me. An immense swell of water in the distance or I'm in the center of it. I drew it a multitude of times trying not to 'decorate' it but just repeating a very similar composition again and again. I didn't wish to redraw the sea exactly but more represented stylistically. I have a keen interest in graphic novels and when I began making this work I was very influenced by artists such as Edward Gory, Seth, and Chris Weir and I wanted to use their style as a way of homage.

I began to use the house more as a metaphor, these experiences of grief and loss were not only my own, I come from  a large family and we were going through this together. 

I was also using thorns in pieces and I wanted to give the impression of  jagged start - stop animation so I drew the sea in this way. When I see paintings on anything other than canvas it usually looks corny or tacky but I really wanted to use a slab of concrete. 

The idea of the triptych is like  a page in a graphic novel, where it zooms in for drama or detail. The blue colour is the sky in Madrid. The smaller painting is on a half part of a tobacco rolling table that I found in my studio space. 

 

There are simple elements to this composition, a repeated style in the drawing of the sea which is essentially black and white paint and pencil. The more delicate elements of wood, concrete and pencil are still obvious.