Description
‘Turn Tail’ by Kaitlin Beckett
Artist: Kaitlin Beckett
Title: ‘Turn Tail’
Medium: Acrylic, gouache, watercolour and pastel on paper
Dimensions: 8″ x 10″
Framing: Unframed
Year of Creation: 2020
About the Artwork:
“Some skinks will drop their tails to distract a predator. If the predator leaves without eating the tail, the skink will go back and eat it to try and regain the lost resources and start the regrowing process, which makes it a kind of disconnected ouroboros.” – Kaitlin Beckett
About the Artist:
(Artist Bio)
Kaitlin Beckett is a painter, illustrator and sculptor working in Melbourne, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand. Her mixed media works on paper, canvas and assemblage sculptures are a curious bestiary of creatures from the sea, air, land and subconscious; expressing a surreal narrative rich in symbolism, humour and biological paradox.
Influenced by quirks of the natural world, mythology and dreams, her art illustrates dystopian post-apocalyptic scenes in which slightly humanoid characters adapt, hybridise and evolve in awkward and impractical ways. Emphasis is placed on texture, line and detail by layering acrylics, gouache, pencils and pastel. Kaitlin also incorporates random splatters, stencils and airbrushing, alongside traditional painting and drawing techniques. She has held several solo exhibitions in Melbourne; exhibited in Australia, New Zealand, America, England, Japan, and Canada; and her works have been collected throughout the world.
(Artist Statement)
Since childhood I have had a love for the fantastic and the imaginary – I enjoy depicting the real and unreal together, harmony and conundrum, a juxtaposition of the unusual with the everyday. My characters invoke a sense of pathos or disquieting whimsy, and I like to encourage viewers to invent their own narratives.