Realities, 2005

Arriving for the photoshoot for this portrait, I found  myself standing in front of an old motorcycle and being handed a helmet. That was when I learnt that, to a motorcyclist, the bike is part of his very being. No portrait would be complete if it didn’t have the bike in the picture too. 

That particular bike had carried the sitter through many countries, which I also wanted to reference. In the top right corner of the painting you can just make out part of the first layer that I put down on the canvas - a map of the world. The silhouetted ship is a reference to the shipwreck that lies jut off the coast close to the sitter’s house, and that he loves to look at when he’s sitting at his desk. The main portrait shows a face at rest, and in a dream.

The owner/sitter periodically changes the orientation of this painting, to view it from different points of view - confirmation, perhaps, that his ever-present question is - what is real?

Oil on canvas, 70 x 50

The painting is in Cyprus.