I am interested in the relationship between image and reality. Art as an illusion. Not just of the objects but of the physical space around them and their interaction with light.

I am exploring this in two ways.

Firstly— in two dimensions; working alla prima, I try to see the subject and its space as boundaries of light and dark, striving to be as absolute as possible, letting forms emerge. One conceit from this approach is to achieve the illusion whilst retaining the mark. A sort of reverse trompe l’oeil.

Secondly— by creating bas relief images that interact with real light giving the two-dimensional illusion.

In both these ways I play with the idea summed up by the title of Rene Magritte’s famous work the ‘The Treachery of Images’, that the artwork can never be the thing.

Though I’m not interested in narrative work, I will use a particular material/technique to describe some aspect of reality. For instance; in my Mining paintings, I took as inspiration the surface of the photographs I used for reference (worn and battered like an old rock seam) and worked the charcoal accordingly.

Peter Davies – 2020

Acrylic Bas-relief Charcoal Ink iPad Mixed-media Oil-paint Oil-pastel Tinted-charcoal