Like most people, I like a bit of trompe l’oeil and photorealism. Especially if it’s done in an interesting and original way. I like the feeling of looking, and then looking again, when the brain can’t quite work out what is painted or drawn by the artist’s hand, and what is real life or a photograph. I’ve added work by four of my favourites below. Russell Herron has now produced over 500 cardboard portrait drawings and is just about release a book containing all of them. I feel fortunate to own one of them and marvel at it every time I pass it on the landing. Roland Hicks‘ paintings on wood and paper are nearly impossible to see as flat painted surfaces. Our eyes just won’t allow us to see his painting of a staple, or a gap between two pieces of wood as being just that, a painted illusion. The masking tape on the corners of the painted photographs of American Otto Duecker also aims to trick us, as do the oil painted plasticine and tape creations of Jonny Green, whose work I first enjoyed at the London Art Fair over a decade ago.
Russell Herron
Roland Hicks
Otto Duecker
Jonny Green
