Blog

TRISTAN PIGOTT

2015-02-10

Easy Reading

My paintings convey how human ego is translated into image, by juxtaposing realistic
painted figures before a surreal backdrop. The narcissism typically associated with
portraiture is given a satirical undertone. My paintings playfully mock the importance
we place on image and perception. The abstract composition of the work displays the
difference between performance and reality. Alternatively, I illustrate details such as
clothes and hair with realism to emphasise the importance my sitter, as well as the
viewer, place in their own image.

Sunday Morning Overground

The figurative style of my painting allows me to convey conceptual narratives with
immediacy relevant to the viewer. In a recent painting, ‘Waiting Room’, the same
man is pictured twice in different styles, the application of paint becoming looser as
the painting recedes. The man holding a cygnet is painted in a realistic style, whilst
the more abstractly painted figure holds an iPhone. These motifs, as symbols of value
and culture in successive eras, accompany the developing brushwork to question the
relevance of tradition in contemporary society and within the evolution of oil
painting.

Waiting Room

Pink Breakfast

The suggestion of action plays an important role in my paintings. It provokes
the viewer’s interpretation, as opposed to simple objectification, of the subject within
their surroundings. Allowing me to develop my interest in the cyclical nature of
everyday life, a reoccurring theme in my work. Every day actions such as eating and
drinking mirror similarly habitual and automated psychological traits such as
arrogance and anxiety. These themes are portrayed using personal sources, playing on
people’s characteristics, putting them in surreal narratives and showing the
theatricality of the situation.

Bubblegum

Showing The Ink

Fast Food

Part-Time Nihilist

Dream House

Source http://tristanpigott.com/