Written by Paul Regan ©paulregan.studio
Most people like a bit of trompe l’oeil and photorealism. Especially if it’s done in an interesting and original way. That 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. Below are four contemporary artists who use, in some way, trompe l’oeil or photorealism in their practice. Russell Herron has now produced over 500 cardboard portrait drawings and is just about release a book containing all of them. Roland Hicks’s paintings on wood and paper are nearly impossible to see as flat painted MDF 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 a painted illusion. This seven minute film about his Forth Wall installation at Hastings Contemporary is worth watching. The masking tape on the corners of the painted photographs of American Otto Duecker also aims to trick us, as do the oil paintings of plasticine and tape creations of Jonny Green.
Russell Herron
Roland Hicks
Otto Duecker
Jonny Green
