Anthony Barrow

These paintings are an interpretation of my emotional response to time based media.
Mass visual information is an accepted part of our everyday existence, television, video, film have become our emotional fix; the characters take us on a fictitious journey that affects our psyche in different ways, provoking reactions that are dependant upon the mind set of the individual.
The psychological effects of over exposure to the moving image are a fascinating subject and provide me with ongoing research.

“The context within which we experience an event will determine how that event is encoded and retained”
(Oxford Companion to the Mind- Richard L Gregory- 1987)

Will society be able to distinguish between fact fiction and in the future?
Some think that the answer is evident today.
Movies are made up of thousands of stills, why do we choose to relate to some and disregard the vast majority?
I believe we initially remember actual events or fictitious imagery in a kind of monochrome or sepia scenario. Emotions are based on colour representation, colour directly affects our mood, in much the same way as music, so our response to a remembered image is to re introduce the colour in much the same way as a painted image brings about an emotional reaction through the manipulation of pigment.

Time based media goes through mechanical, technological and other third party interventions before it reaches the viewer, colour representation, I believe, occupies a very small percentage of the overall impact on the individual therefore sound plays an important roll.
By a combination of remembered images as tonal compositions and the inclusion of colour to enhance a mood I hope to reintroduce the image, through the process of painting thereby giving it a true physical presence and bringing it closer to the viewer and away from the celluloid screen.