Ophelia by Dan Coombs
The British artist Dan Coombs ( b.1971 ) creates his compositions from studies in collage and paint , which unite his figures with entirely invented surroundings, landscape dream worlds and interior spaces. These are human encounters charged with a mysterious, symbolic power. They are explorations of guilt, beauty and fear of isolation, that draw on myth, religion and psychoanalysis in order to grasp the real within the imaginary.
The paintings have a formality of composition and balance that underpins the energy of their execution but remain deliberately left open to interpretation from the viewer. They are attempting to capture the essence of an emotional situation, to represent ideas or embody meanings. The figures have an uncanny ambiguity - they can be interpreted as emanations of the artist’s psyche, or as creatures in their own right – trapped within dreamlike, gestural landscapes of heightened colour.
