Rebecca will be exhibiting with ArtDog Gallery February 11/12, 2012. Please see NEWS for more details.
Artist’s Statement:
My work explores two of the most traditional forms of figurative art – portraiture and the (female) nude. Whilst these themes might initially seem relatively straightforward, it has taken me 6 years of working as a painter since my graduation in 2004 to begin to unravel the reasons for my attraction to the subject. This time has enabled me to see that a fascination with beauty, image and identity compels me towards these forms of art. I deeply enjoy the shapes and lines of the human form and find myself in a constant state of analyzing, mapping, admiring and dissecting all the aspects of the many faces and bodies I encounter in my day to day life.
My interest in these themes has a direct relationship with the mesmerizing power of images themselves – with the way personal and cultural influences shape someone’s looks; How the same person could have a million different faces depending on how they respond to these factors, then represent themselves to the world. This in turn has led me to develop a particular interest in the way in which the self can be extended and expressed through the addition of a multitude of objects to the body that almost become part of the individual’s form, and an essential part of their individuality. My portraits focus on the subject’s extensions and additions just as much as on the figure itself, as I feel they are a vital part of the image the subject projects into the world, allowing a much richer insight into their identity.
I am deeply excited by color, texture and surface – by the random beauty of paint being allowed to take on its own form – and equally, the skill and precision with which it can be used to create illusions – turning flat surfaces into an almost tangible reality, more perfect than reality itself can ever be. In painting, images give me a base from which I can open up into zones of feeling, responding to these images on a purely visceral level, with the use of colour, line and pattern. Over the years of experimenting I have reached a point where I have begun to work more immediately with these elements of control and chaos,