FOREWORD
Washington Green, fine art publishers to Castle Galleries and Castle Fine Art, is privileged to present Love and Desire by Rob Hefferan. An established and critically acclaimed figurative artist with a far reaching collector base, Hefferan makes his bow into the hallowed ranks of Washington Green artists with great aplomb. This body of work is an exceptional portrayal of duality. Rob Hefferan has carefully crafted a world of light and shade, giving his audience both sides of every proverbial coin one could want or indeed imagine. Love and passion. Day and night. Romance and lust. Sensual and sexual. Traditional and contemporary. The list of thematic abbreviations could continue, but it would be so very wrong to give merely an overview of Hefferan’s debut collection for Washington Green Fine Art without taking a deep breath and diving beneath the surface layers of these achingly dramatic paintings. Hefferan is gifted with a sure and certain sense of purpose for each body of work. As inspiration dawns, his vision begins to take shape in his mind’s eye before a fully realised concept is born. Not content with his mastery of figurative portraiture, it is at this point that his flair for staging, styling and photography leads the march. A modern day Norman Rockwell, Hefferan is instrumental in sourcing his locations and his models, and no element, from costume to props, escapes his obsessive eye for detail. However, unlike Rockwell, there is no trace of tracing to be found in Hefferan’s artistic practice. The balance between Hefferan’s two title themes, love and desire, is perfectly
weighted. The pieces enveloped in the ‘Love’ leitmotif are softly lit, beautifully staged and speak to the viewer of Pre-Raphaelite ideals. The fabrics appear lushly swathed, the décor is ornate and the setting as opulent as one would expect for the beauty and grace of his subjects. Every texture is given great attention; Hefferan’s depiction of light and movement breathes great life and vibrancy into this array of beautifully engineered tableaus, courtesy of his refined brush technique. As such, it isn’t a far stretch to understand why each piece can take between 150 to 200 hours to complete. ‘Desire’ is a different world and a different time. Hefferan takes us by the hand and leads us away from the high vaulted ceilings, light airy rooms and decorous poses we have seen thus far, into a world far removed and altogether edgier. These scenes are decidedly reminiscent of sexual, rather than sensual, fantasy. They conjure up images of nocturnal Soho establishments, Sally Bowles’ 1930s Kit Kat Club, and the art of burlesque, as given new life in recent times by famous performer Dita Von Teese. Hefferan chose a prestigious members club in the heart of Mayfair as the backdrop of some of these pieces, lending an added layer of indulgence and decadence to the overall effect, as the viewer becomes the voyeur. Thus, with no further ado, we lift the curtain on Love and Desire and invite the audience to accompany artist, and artistic director, Rob Hefferan on the sensory journey he has lain before you.
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