Throughout my practice as an artist, I’ve had a particular interest in the body, not only in how it is represented but also in what it represents. While in previous works I focused on the themes of gender and sexuality, in this new series i looked at the body in a more physical way such as: what it looks like, what it does and how it moves.
Most of my inspiration for these series came from the references I found online but overall there was a sense of wanting to rebel against the original nude(Greek nude). In Acrobats in Blue,I became fascinated by how the body looked while performing a roll while the Boundaries series started by how interesting the first pose was(1m x 1m canvas). After creating the main piece I felt as if the body was trying to keep the other person hidden so I went along with that idea. The name was also inspired by the feeling the first painting gave, as I felt as if the body had put a boundary that I couldn’t break.
Something all my nudes have in common is the missing head. This was done on purpose as to keep the body expression, movements as details on focus since we tend to look at someone’s expression before their body.
Both series were painted using acrylic in Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue and white gesso on canvas of various sizes.
Mel Latimer | Fine Art
