If I could paint, I'd paint a portrait of you
I'm glad the painting of Heath came runner up in the Archibald Prize. If it had won, people would question whether it was awarded because of tragic circumstance or because it was truly a deserving painting.
I love a lot of the paintings this year but I had an emotive response to "Heath", not because he's dead but because the painting itself is so damn dark. It's like Heath's being taunted by demonic versions of himself and the central portrait subsequently looks hollow about the eyes. The blood on his chest is interesting considering what that normally represents in paintings. There's a "hall of mirrors" effect about the portrait like in "All About Eve" where the mirror image goes on forever. There's definitely a message about the star-image in this painting and when you add that to the pressures we know now were tearing at Heath Ledger, resulting in stress and sleeplessness, resulting in death...it's just haunting. Congratulations to Vincent Fantauzzo, a talented artist.
I honestly found the above painting far more striking than the winner but I think that might be because I'm attracted to darker, tortured subjects. The winner was too mushy and light for me. Funny how the favourites never win this competition. Heh. I don't think "Heath" was even considered a favourite.
I love a lot of the paintings this year but I had an emotive response to "Heath", not because he's dead but because the painting itself is so damn dark. It's like Heath's being taunted by demonic versions of himself and the central portrait subsequently looks hollow about the eyes. The blood on his chest is interesting considering what that normally represents in paintings. There's a "hall of mirrors" effect about the portrait like in "All About Eve" where the mirror image goes on forever. There's definitely a message about the star-image in this painting and when you add that to the pressures we know now were tearing at Heath Ledger, resulting in stress and sleeplessness, resulting in death...it's just haunting. Congratulations to Vincent Fantauzzo, a talented artist.
I honestly found the above painting far more striking than the winner but I think that might be because I'm attracted to darker, tortured subjects. The winner was too mushy and light for me. Funny how the favourites never win this competition. Heh. I don't think "Heath" was even considered a favourite.