10 Celeste Chandler
The Surface of Things 6 | 2015 | oil on linen on oval stretcher | 100 x 80 x 2 cm
Sunshine Coast Art Prize 2016 – Finalist
[Image courtesy of the artist]
Celeste Chandler | The Surface of Things 6 | 2015 | oil on linen on oval stretcher | 100 x 80 x 2 cm
Artist Statement
Using the conventions of portraiture and echoing the cameo, this painting is about how we exist as though peering out from our head. From this unseen space of thought, emotion and sensation we project out into the world and the face becomes a verge or portal.
Smothering the head in cream emphasizes this threshold; framing the orifices of eyes, nose and mouth intensifies the bodily sensations. The cream reveals and conceals, it sits on the face like paint sits on the canvas, covering a membrane whist it beckons us into a deeper space beyond the surface.