An orangutan portrays that the chair he is holding is not a chair, whilst being himself not on a chair nor being an orangutan.
When I did this piece for my animals in chairs series I wanted to play with the surrealist meta idea that was made popular by the artist Rene' Magritte in his famous painting "The Treachery of images", which is a painting of a pipe with the "Ce n'est pas une pipe" (This is not a pipe)
Magritte was saying that images were in a sense lying, as this was not a pipe, "you could not stuff this pipe and smoke it" it retorted. And he claimed if he had written 'this is a pipe' he'd have been a liar.
In this vein I wanted the character in the work to hold a chair representing this isn't a chair, but as he is also an image which isn't an orangutan nor is he sitting on a chair.
I love to toy with ideals and have a bit of tongue and cheek in my pieces. I also thought it funny that an orangutan should be sitting in a club chair and holding out an impossibly tiny chair to the viewer as if to say, "Take a seat, please"
These pieces were also for me very much a study in colour. In many ways much of my work plays with colour. I am just drawn to rich or bright colours and find it can be an expressive part of a piece to a point that it, itself, becomes another character or subject in my work.
I often do a few studies in varying shades to decide what colour way I want to go. And of course, the joy of digital is such that were I to want to change out the colours, it could be done without affecting the integrity of the original piece.
Do you consider colour before you start an artwork or do you let the piece dictate the colour to you?
Are you drawn to art that is colourful, or do more subdued sublte monotones draw you in?
(my lovely divider designed by @atopy)
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