Between Two Worlds
Steve Tyerman
- Sitter: Steve Tyerman
- Medium: Oil on Canvas
- Dimensions: 110 x 150 cm
- Representation: Anthea Polson Art, Michael Reid, Montville Gallery, KAB Gallery
About the artwork and sitter
“In a way, the artist lives in their own little world, lost in the puzzle of interpreting life into their chosen medium and constrained by their materials. This work tries to manifest that idea of straddling the real world and the two dimensional artificial world in which the painter is trapped.”
Tyerman used to work in a picture framing shop (to provide the necessary steady income to support his art), and this work speaks of balancing this dichotomy of life. To create this work, Tyerman hand made the stretcher frame, positioned himself inside it and took a range of photos, then stretched and prepared the canvas and painted himself with the aid of a mirror and the photographs.
About the artist
Steve Tyerman is a fulltime artist living and working on the Gold Coast. He predominantly paints landscapes and does the occasional self portrait because, as he says “I’m always around”. Tyerman’s main interest in paint is to get closer to how he actually sees and experiences the world around him, and in doing so maybe attain a better understanding of it and himself.
“Posing inside a stretcher frame, almost bracing it with my body, is an obvious reference to art itself and speaks of making something from scratch.”
Behind the scenes
I paint a few self portraits, mainly because I find myself to be a fairly reliable model (in terms of turning up on time). Posing inside a stretcher frame, almost bracing it with my body, is an obvious reference to art itself and speaks of making something from scratch, but it is also suggestive of the constraints associated with art and life or a desire to break free of inherent restrictions.
This ambiguity also extends to my facial expression which I wanted to be a bit equivocal and open to interpretation. The dichotomous nature of things is further tinkered with between the thickly painted figure and the thinly painted background and trompe-l’oeil timber frame.
