My painting explores the gap between representation and mimesis. Making images of living things is a project with failure written into its code, but it seems to be written into our coding as human beings, too. From the official portrait painting to the intense, melancholy concentration of remembering the details of a moment in the past, we 'see' in images.
Zeuxis and Parrhasios held a competition to see who was the greatest painter. Zeuxis’ grapes were painted so well that, after he drew back the curtain to reveal his work, birds flew into the theatre to peck at them. The crowd turned to Parrhasios. ‘Draw back the curtain’ they cried. ‘Let’s see your painting!’ But Parrhasios’ painting was the curtain itself. Zeuxis admitted defeat.
This is painted from a Preiser railway modelling figure. The tiny event is too small for me to draw it, to make sense of it. It resists the process.