I graduated from the Fine Art Painting department of LSAD in 2012. My early work focused on the female body and its portrayal in contemporary society. At the time social media was not as all-encompassing as it is now but was beginning to creep into the public psyche. Sharing ourselves online was relatively new and Photoshop and other editing software programmes were becoming commonplace. Much of my work at the time focused on these themes – especially the battle between one’s own reflection and the edited image we portray of ourselves online. We were just starting to realise that online we could be anyone, but that person would still not exist in the mirror.

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Of course, historically we have seen countless oil paintings of women painted primarily by make artists. This is what we accept as normal. I sought to explore the difference between a male gaze and a female’s own. The work became about historical male objectivity versus a contemporary female subjectivity, the constant battle between the real and the imagined, the corporeal and the ultimate aesthetic.

 

The work was primarily painted with oil in MDF by overlaying thin layers of paint to build up colour and tone. I was very interested in colour – what are the true colours of our skin? How can the change in colour scheme affect the overall mood of the work? Can a change in colour bring about a shift in our perception of the subject’s: a. psychological state, and b. relationship with her own body?

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