Anthony Harvey

Sherry’s

Jackson's Painting Prize 2023, Bankside Gallery 2023
Charcoal
Paper
33 x 24.1 cm

“The submitted drawings all resurrect and distort moments from the past. Based on long lost archives and focusing on the romance of the first half of the 21st century, the charcoal drawings mainly depict group portraits. Painters like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec with his signature animated crowd scenes or even Hopper with his voyeuristic tendencies are important influences in the body of work.

The creative process all starts with extensive archival research which is followed by digital recomposing. The frozen, captivating moments from the past are deeply observed, cropped and reworked to focus on specific aspects or element of the scenes. A second, more extensive remodeling is done directly on paper, with charcoal. During the drawing phase, almost no attention is given to realism and accuracy; the main intention is to generate captivating emotions, dynamism and a variety of textures (created by a vast array of charcoal application tools)

High contrasts made possible by the choice of medium (in this case being charcoal) accentuate the almost vintage feel of the artworks. Imperfections, proximity and a recurrent over-exposed aesthetics could be put in parallel with some iconic black and white street photography (for example Weegee’s work).”