Description
‘Ofelia’ by Declan Lee
Artist: Declan Lee
Title: ‘Ofelia’
Medium: Pastel on Paper
Dimensions: 15.7” x 10.7”
Framed: Unframed
Year of Creation: 2018
About the Artwork:
“Ofelia was inspired by a dream I had after watching Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. I have always loved the aesthetics of dolls and for a time considered making them myself. Dolls all too often suffer from the ‘uncanny valley’, an unnerving feeling that tends towards the creepy. By painting a figure with doll like qualities I found I could retain all of the beauty, sweetness and charm while adding to it those qualities that give it a sense of emotion, presence and atmosphere.” – Declan Lee
About the Artist:
(Artist Bio)
I was born in 1973 in Southport, England. After moving to Australia I studied classical art at the Adelaide Central School of Art and completed my Bachelor of Design in Illustration at the Underdale campus of the University of South Australia. After an award winning but soulless career as an Illustrator I have focused on establishing myself as an artist.
I work exclusively in pastel for its immediacy and delicate, vibrant colour. The work draws its inspiration from my interests in the esoteric symbolism and archetypal language of the Tarot, Hermeticism, Mythology and religious art that speaks to the viewer on a level that lies beyond language. Those symbols we understand intuitively, deeply rooted in the collective unconscious that find expression in dreams and myth. As they defy contrivance and seem to appear in the mind fully formed, the sketching of ideas is closer to memory than invention. Creating the finished art becomes a process of getting the ego out of the way and allowing the subject to take on a life of its own. For me beauty and truth are synonymous, and the end result should be a picture that allows the “other” to inhabit our world in all its vibrant immediacy.