Phoebe Strutt
The underlying theme of my artwork is perception . Perception as a child , perception after trauma , perception of faces through the study of portraiture and perception itself – through the study of the eyes . I was fascinated by the idea of someone being able to remember how they drew themself as a child , as there is a classic technique of a children ’ s self-portrait ... that it does not look remotely like themselves , the features are comprised of squiggly lines and monster-like arms and legs . So to be able to create a huge collaborative piece where everyone drew their remembered childhood self-portrait was incredible . I created a lot of follow-up work from this piece , taking inspiration from the drawings for a huge colourful piece . After completing my collection of eye paintings , I had a newfound love and skill for realism and surrealism . This is when I created my selfportrait ; after the precise study of one feature , it allowed me to understand the human face at a much more detailed level . I am definitely more interested in portraiture or images of people or beings than landscapes , as they produce far more emotion , something which is very important for me when creating my artwork .