Black Paintings

Black Paintings [1999 to 2004] was the first project in a significant shift from photography to painting. Using the Photo Painting process, these works enhance the relationship between the artist and the work, its process requiring a great amount of intimacy and sacrifice in building each image. In a way they are still perceived as photographs but exploring a different medium. Unlike the process used by the early Photo Realists, the painting is worked from a manipulated photograph, either by digital or printing methods, and the model poses under studio conditions. The artist also allows for creative input in the painting stage. The people portrayed are chosen for their appearance and attitude, they change their natural features, such as hair colour/gender/make-up. They suggest a sense of confrontation, as well as seduction, through the mutual gaze between the subject and the viewer with the added impact of the large scale portrait.