16
Altered Images
Featuring thirty five original canvases, and over a year in the painting, Stuart McAlpine Miller's prestigious new collection debuts later this autumn at flagship gallery, Castle Fine Art, Bruton Street in the heart of Mayfair. We caught up with him to talk about his new collection
How did you come up with the original concept for your work? My current style is a product of working as an artist over the last twenty years. I have been influenced by Renaissance art, especially Caravaggio as he had a great approach to figurative art – my favourite of his works is The Supper at Emmaus, which is very dark and dramatic. Also, imagery that’s transparent has been a growing fascination of mine and gradually this has become the focus of my work. So the basis of the concept lies in Renaissance art but with a surrealist and contemporary edge.
You have described themessage/ aimof your work as to draw the viewer closer and identify the different layers in your works, but do you ever hide images within your pieces; as secrets that only you knoware there? I aim to include very clear imagery in my pieces and don’t hide aspects intentionally. The sub-images within them are supposed to be un-ravelled over time by the viewer. Often layers of a piece I will think are the most hidden appear to someone else first and vice-versa, which is interesting because it just shows how the mind can work in different ways.
How do you choose the comic and model images? Which do you decide on first and how do you pair them up to create one piece? I see each of my paintings as a concise history of the main figure and the multiple layers add up to create one story, one moment. Sometimes I use the model as the primary component and other times I choose an animation first then design a character – it really depends on the idea I have and how I can represent it. Either way, there is always interaction between the animated characters and model, which I can create in the way I position them. We’ve heard that when you are painting you sometimes wear two or more pairs of
prescription glasses to enable you to perfect the layering – can you explain your technique to us in a little more detail? I used to wear multiple glasses at once but now I just use one pair of magnifying glasses. This is because I work two or three inches away from the canvas as it’s important I create very accurate lines to produce the very graphic backgrounds in my works. I first tried out the glasses technique as a solution to the fact that I feel I can never get close enough to the canvas. I’ve since checked with the opticians and luckily, I’m not damaging my eyes! What is your process when you are creating? We know you have recently moved to a more rural location, does •
The Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio
FINE ART COLLECTOR AUTUMN 2013
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker