Silent Life

geeeeeeeessssssuuuuussss Paul….You’ve done it again…....unbelievable shot

WOW!!! This is so amazing! The tones you have put into this are superb!! Tracey OMG! You look amazing! You two did an amazing job! I cant waiit to see more!

What a compelling image, Paul!

This work between you two makes my day.. I was just telling someone the other day…... lolololol

Awesome work both of you! great concept and outcome! Bravo!

Wow, I’m blown away by this, Paul! Fantastic work, amazing concept! The way you’ve both built this scene, and the processing just leaves me gob-smacked! My brain hurts trying to keep up with your ideas…..LOL! Love it!!!!

too cool for school…. though this image teaches us alot about the perfect treatment…..... death by stagnation….... brilliant work…. bravo to you both….......b

Incredible concept and processing, Paul. Your work makes us think, too. Well done to your both. Cheers Elana.

This is superb work from both of you! I love it when two creative talents come together and share the product of their combined minds!!

It starts here with a fabulous concept – I love the juxtaposition of the two figures and the surreality of it all!
The styling is fabulous and the composition fascinating!

!

Now, if I thought Saving Grace was outstanding, then this! THIS! you look like dolls in some nightmarish scene! Bizarre and yet subtly sexual and completely surreal! The composition is hilariously dark and the processing amazing! Well done both of you! Brilliant and very very funny!!! sort of… well… xoxox

omg.. love the story’s that are seen when delved into your pieces. such placement. color.and light spots..so much to look and see into .”its eye candy for one who looks to find”—chappel

love the surreality, and the story being told. AWESOME!

Ahhh, the good olde dinner table…it just begs for it, doesn’t it ;)

powerful

A morbidly fascinating composition! your incredible and unique vision and imagination is astonishing. So many wonderful elements one could look at this all day. As always a masterpiece of great fantasy!

As always an out of this world surreal piece! (arrow worked out well)

Silent life indeed! What an incredibly brilliant & darkly compelling view here.
awesome collaboration you two!!

At first I thought it was called Still Life and then realised it was silent! However its a brilliant concept and even more brilliant image

Intense, brutal, lyrical…. masterful work from an artist and entertainer!!!

Wow very powerful loveit.

this is awesome, great concept and wonderful outcome !

Super superb work Paul This can be interpreted in so many ways . Silent indeed. Love the treatments and wonderful set up.. Awesome work.

bad boy bubby springs to mind, very disturbing movie that one. theres something special in everything you do. you inspire many im sure.

EEE.eeeK…..talk about the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, this is not only reminiscent of past trials and tribulations, but positively… poisonously… pontificatingly and fascinatingly you!!!!

your work always stands out!...too cool!:)

Stupendous :D

wow!

it has all been said Paul… fantastic work by you and Tracey,,, well done

I think the neighbours did the right thing. It was a good shot. Best to put him down. A pitiful sight. Maybe now she’ll buy curtains…....

a thought provoking image. Well done

Great concept! Great work!

Hi Paul. Love the composition in this. Nice work, as usual.
JJ

Dark,gritty and disturbing …..Love it!!!

Superb! Amazing work! :-0

i dont think words can give this creation justice!
incredible …

Love your imagination Paul, I never know what you are going to produce next …

good work

Freaking love it!

I love that this has a bit of horror movie tinge to it. A back story for each of us to make up in our own minds.
What a great mask she’s wearing!!
what an artist you are!!

beyond words Paul & Tracey

you have just raised the bar to an unattainable height with this

a masterpiece of art !

Love ‘N’ Laughter Kriss

Excellent

outstanding work Paul as usual

A Tremendous pair of images

Thats cool – mq

OH MY…...........wow…an Awesome scene straight out of some CRAZY MOVIE…wow….LOVE LOVE LOVEEEEEEEEEEE ;))))

.........and I have to ask…is that a blow up doll ???? LOL :))

Yep, like a David Lynch movie still :). Love it.

WOW, Paul! One of your best yet! the mood, the set design, the concept..just wow!!

P
xxxx

Never turn your back on Tracey Mac, Paul. WILD WILD WILD and trippy!!!

Very amusing. :-))

More than good! Bravo!

Very creative…wonderful image!

Brilliant!

A darkly hilarious scenario…........what did Paul and the possum share now that they are both stuffed and silent?
I love Tracey’s stiff pose…...really reinforces that sense of edgy nervous silence..
Great great work !!!!!!!!!
I love this …..

reminded me for some reason of blue velvet… i think that was the name of a cult film with Dennis Hoppers come back … Hopper keeps coming up with your style ha ! anyway far out composition with a story here… not sure but certainly has one thinking…

excellent

A most bizarre and intriguing scene, Paul, fantastic light and colour.

Were any squirrels hurt in the making of this story? I love bitchin’ Biblical allegories… can’t get enough of them but… Exactly which gospel is this from?

Okay, doesn’t matter, I’m working on the moral of this tale…. Figger it’s got to do with the wages of forniction, mashed potatoes, and shredded place mats… Ooops, did I type forniction out loud? Sorry.

Oddest thing… when you type forn&c&tion.. the RB interpreter writes forniction. Fornicition sounds really nasty…. hmmmmmmm….

NIce work too all, So who did it?

incredible. i love the cool disconnected quality you have been portraying in some of your recent work…excellent narrative

your work is always unique and filled with a special something….awesome art :)

brilliant,surreal…..a true work of genius babe

Ha..Clever.

gosh paul. absolutely intense. i love the concept and execution

wow! this is truly awesome!!! love the concept and so well executed!

incredible! great concept and well executed!

Stunning Capture….

Brilliant tableau, the subtlely placed artefacts make for an interesting story….. Gregorgy Crewdson look out!

That will teach you to eat your veggies Paul…!!!......lol. Awesome art direction, props and models, of course. I love the concept so much and Tracey plays the perfect perpetrator of a heinous crime….......... great fun and fully clever…....

I’d love to know more about this image, Paul – it brings a whole new meaning to ‘still life’! The ligting and post production are as always, fantastic. I sat here for quite some time mulling this one over, and I love how your work does that to me!

LOVE IT!

total dreamscape DL style. hehe
so love how you can see a little of the other room.
actually love the whole thing ;-) xox

hmmm…make a note… be busy if Tracey asks you for dinner ..... well staged…great story to unravel

another one! OK Now I am paying homage!!

Hmm! the tittle says it all!!! nice work, incredible tones!! ; ) !!
lorena

AWESOME!

Amazing indeed ! You both did a great job, well done !

ahh Domestic bliss! first thing that sprang to mind was “westrn suburbs – St Albans” love how you can make a seemingly low income suburban home look so dreamy… the mixed emotion / expression on the womans face with the untouched meal in front of her leaves me in a quandry. Love how your work makes me wonder what the hell is going on and what message I’m supposed to read in it. Your imagination is so left of centre it’s mind blowing!

Jan Vermeer, it’s said, painted in disguise. At first glance the Delft 17th century artist created magnificent subject pictures. At first, second and third glance he seemed to be an ultra realist who labored over his technique… each minute object, color, arrangement was deftly presented. But… but the merit of a realist is most frequently not in the artist’s profundity, but in its finality. Realists seem to want to merely imitate rather than create. They are like garage bands, judged on how well they sound like the original rock and roll hit.

One of the things which differentiates art from craft, is that art beckons us to return and rewards us additionally each time we do. Since you posted this image, I’ve returned to it quite frequently on my monitor and in my mind.

It has become clear that Vermeer’s work is so far above his Dutch contemporaries that it is almost unreasonable to class him with the photo-realists of that period since his preoccupation with abstraction place him more in the 20th than the 17th century. A thoughtful study of Vermeer reveals that he continually interprets rather than imitates life.

His paintings are about something, but not the objects, colors, and arrangements so realistically rendered. But, even though that becomes more obvious with every visit to his images, we need keys to each puzzle… and with each visit we hunt more intensely for those code breakers.

This image of yours… this “Silent Life” is as meticulously arranged, detailed, and colored as a Vermeer, and on the surface is a ‘subject’ picture. But on any careful level of observation it breaks all connection with the world of conventional reality. On one level it is farce, whimsy, fun. On another it is savagely menacing, alienated, melancholy. And these are just two of its dimensions.

Abstraction by say, a Picasso, is frequently dismissed as too easy (“My child could have done THAT!”) – so you have escaped that charge here by making your abstraction look too hard. Yet you still reject photographic imitation of reality. It’s fully photographic in technique but as impressionistic as say Kandinsky in the sense that it follows the logical conclusion of its creator as opposed to an anecdotal capture of a landscape, floral, or fuzzy dog frolicking in the sun.

Of course I don’t mean to dismiss any of those things, merely to use them as comparison. You have invited imaginations to wonder… to consider the interplay of cool palette, encroaching negative space and astonishingly unnatural bodies interacting with common-place details rendered tack sharp.

And all of this has rewarded me with each revisit… and forced me to take this work as seriously as it assaults, even shocks, my feelings. I want the key, but I want to find it… I want to use the title as a way into this natural abstraction.

I want to be rewarded by its impudent ambiguity every time I come back to it. Like Vermeer, this piece makes me wonder.

That’s not what craft does. But then, art without wonder is merely craft, eh?

great, Paul…you seem to be telling a tale of a VERY strange relationship in a few of your latest photos. wonderfully realised, as usual – definitely no ” happily ever after” with these lovers…

Great concept + perfect execution! Well done;-)

I love this so much but I’m still not sure why !! lol !! You are quite the story-teller !! XX Becca

your artistic journey is one of surprises!!

AMAZING

Outstanding! defo it goes to fav!

Amazing ..so strange ..so wonderful!!

it’s amazing how you tell a story with one still shot… and many stories are told with each viewer’s interpretation… you’re incredibly talented… : )

I love that this has so many people drawn to it without necessarily being able to put their finger on why, that is just part of the magic of art and you have captured that intrigue here perfectly.
Love it.

Have been away for a while. Had a browse and I noticed that you are really coming into your own. A true artist. This is so very well thought out and executed. To imagine and create this from start to finish is just amazing. For me it seems to have a classical feel with a modern twist. Nice. Hope all your efforts are paying off for you Paul.

I NOTE A TOUCH OF BRUCE CREWDSON IN YOUR WORK.. ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE ARTIST

yea gregory crewdson i meant… well done on ur work mate…

Dramatic! love it!

simply amazing! This is very well produced… I so want to try a big project like this…