Samuel Condon

Portrait of a boy inverted | 2023 | oil on linen | 35 x 54cm (diptych)

Sunshine Coast Art Prize 2023 - Finalist

[Image courtesy of the artist]

Samuel Condon | Portrait of a boy inverted | 2023 | oil on linen | 35 x 54cm (diptych)

Artist Statement

A technique taught to the young artist when he was a child was to copy an image upside down, allowing his mind to see the shapes and structure within images to more accurately replicate the shades and contours of the subject.

Additionally the safe and traditional nature of the image, an 1800’s portrait by French Artist Louis-Léopold Boilly, is destabilized with this non-traditional contemporary inversion. It could also be interpreted as a humorous and rebellious act by the artist, who knows…