The Consumer

Oil on canvas board (600 mm x 400 mm).

This is a work that I began quite some time ago and which has undergone a number of steps towards completion. What is particularly satisfying is that I have used some colours that I have prepared myself from pigment powders and good quality linseed oil. Here I refer to the bright (Cadmium) yellow and the (Multi Oxide) turquoise blue (which really makes an impact in this piece).

I have named it “The Consumer” which, I feel, is quite fitting and apt. This is an image of the modern man/woman trapped in a world of mass marketing. The “Consumer” stands helpless as he watches his hard earned money fly off away to the glass-fronted stores which are temples filled with mass produced goods that (if worshiped) bring on the temporary illusion of wealth and happiness.

This represents a departure from my past work as it introduces a figure thereby leading to an opportunity to comment upon the human condition.