A disciplined chromatic treatise on quietude gently alights upon the viewer. The sitter's eyes are closed perhaps on the cusp of an exhalation, inhalation or neither. The shoulders seem tense as the head leans slightly forward. A multitude of candidate emotions are nominated but none gains an overall majority. The off-centre positioning also hints at discomfiture.
The painting takes the form of a serene heatmap. The peach orange background is punctuated by diffusions of red adjacent to the left shoulder and right ear, like pranic energy flowing in or out of the body. A luminesce on the right of the head is mirrored by a mustard coloured stroke inside the lapel.
The hair drawn up to a knot on the crown is rendered in wide marks of pastel blues, greens and mauves counteracting the gravity of the eye lashes pulling us down. Touches of white provide subtle delineation. The forehead has a smoother flesh finish with the cheeks, chin, and temples again featuring more variegated patches of colour. The garment's bluish palette and brushwork mirrors the upper centre.
In this portrait of introspection we see a moment of a person simultaneously in and out of themselves, both blending with and separating from their surroundings.
You know these things as thoughts, but
your thoughts are not your experiences,
they are an echo and after-effect
of your experiences:
as when your room trembles
when a carriage goes past.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Part of a solo exhibition 'Not Marble' at Amanda Wilkinson in London from 10 April to 31 May 2025.
