The first of a new category of blog post, in which an available painting is picked out for discussion.
Around 2016 I began a series of paintings combining elements of Courbet paintings into new compositions, and borrowing his motifs but recasting myself into the title role.
On the one hand this was a concerted effort to learn about the artists method of constructing images, from composition to lighting, tonality and colour, but was also a means of using previously existing imagery to construct a new narrative.
Very often I would choose a Courbet painting featuring one or more women, and combine it with a self portrait. This evokes themes of lust, longing and romance, but also the relationship but artist and model.
Matt Wells Art 