John Murphy’s Digital Art Has Painterly Feel To It
I love John Murphy‘s digital art. It’s clean, simple, direct and has a real painterly feel to it. Above all he’s not afraid to stop. Too many times I’ve come across art that is overworked and thus confusing, muddy, with too much going on, too much misunderstood. Murphy’s work on the other hand is disciplined.
Living in Spain for over 10 years has certainly influenced Murphy’s palette and style, there’s a real freshness about his work, it’s light and bright something that would be hard to reconcile with the rainy, grey skies of Ireland. Anyway here’s what he has to say about his work:
My work mainly concerns itself with how to make an image of the human form or a portrait now. Most of my pieces are created in sections or layers on paper using traditional media such as ink, watercolour, Acrylic etc. These are then scanned, cut up and rearranged in photoshop. I usually don’t create series but my work is made to be seen together.
Like clothes in the best homes elements and sections in my pictures are handed down from piece to piece. I often start a new piece by using a part of the image that came before it. So a dialogue between one piece and another is set up.
I make collages. I spent a long time in the past trying to hide/bury the collage aspect of my work but I am finally embracing it. This also ties into the whole idea of the ‘remix’ which appeals to me conceptually. As for inspiration I keep coming back to the work of Kurt Schwitters and the films of Chris Marker.
John is also a member of mutantspace which is always a good thing!
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