Title: Down the Lido

Information about painting: Oil on canvas,150 x 200 cm

Down the Lido began with a feeling, that first moment at the lido when you finally strip off your clothes, feel the sun and wind on bare skin, and watch light break across the water. I like the idea of the skin reflecting the water and the feeling of breath returning, and feeling free. That sensation is the surface of the work, but underneath it lies something I’ve been circling since studying Fine Art at Goldsmiths. Physiognomy, the way we judge people by how they look rather than who they are, at Goldsmiths I became fascinated and unsettled by the history of physiognomy. The pseudoscience of measuring faces to determine character, even criminality. I feel that history has never left us.

Price: £4000 (unframed)