Cartoonist's nightmare

Comment

Comment by Gavin Mayhew on February 21, 2014 at 10:15am

If you think that is nightmarish you should see some of my other stuff. Thanks for the comments. Gavin

Comment by Heather Diacont Rinehart on February 15, 2014 at 8:05am

Really lovely color and forms. Nightmarish, but too interesting to look away.

Comment by Resident Curator on February 3, 2014 at 3:05pm

Hi Gavin,

I'm pleased you liked my comments about your work, and I look forward to seeing the new set.

Kristen

Comment by Gavin Mayhew on February 3, 2014 at 2:33pm

Thanks - person called Resident Curator. I feel honoured to receive such a lovely (not quite the descriptive word I really should use for my paintings) comments on my work. I am on with some new stuff that concentrates on movement which can appear no less disturbing, but in a more pleasurable way. I shall post the images when I have completed the full set. Thanks again for your encouraging words. Much appreciated. Gav

Comment by Resident Curator on February 2, 2014 at 5:47pm

Curator’s Comments: 

 

Cartoonist’s Nightmare has an enjoyable organic construct, and while the figures show significant distortion, the result is more intriguing than ghoulish. The light color palette maintains a soft and dreamy luminosity, offering an amalgamation of multiple watery and transforming abstracted faces.  The related prior work titled Gagged is slightly more disturbing but no less absorbing.  The primary portrait is perhaps less cartoonish than the first portrait, and has a disparaging, almost withering quality as the facial expression dissolves into the textural openings of articulated ink wash.  Absent a centrally fixated mouth, I find my eyes move more freely around the picture plane and take in the feathery edges of the positive space. It’s at once delicate and brooding.  I also find myself searching for stylistic similarities in the more forceful gestural figures in your portfolio.  Both economic and athletic, the intricate abstraction becomes more assertive and specific.  Rings is a dynamic example in this grouping, offering strong linear tension with deceptively simple drawing. While the full rainbow hued color scheme may unnecessarily complicate the figure’s pose, it sustains irrefutable energy in flux.