David Finnigan

David Finnigan
Telstar (2012)

Oil on linen
160cm x 120cm

Courtesy of the artist and plusonegallery.com

British artist David Finnigan brings all senses into play when researching his artworks: he sketches and takes photographs, records the sounds, feels the wind on his face, the warmth of the sun, and takes stock of the smells, stating: “They all add to the end result”.  
  Finnigan recalls visits to marinas – the masts, the rigging, the colours, the distinctive smells and the clanking of metal – and how they fascinate and inspire him.  Seeing these two yachts side-by-side, he was compelled to recreate them in his photorealist style – whilst making alterations in the construction of the image to take into account light and dark, the colour palette, balance, movement and the way the whole composition works.  On completion, he felt it had a 1960s space feel: the lozenge shape of the boats suggesting movement through space, the shape of the jetty indicative of Saturn V – and so he named the work ‘Telstar’ after the 1962 electronic instrumental hit single.  

Finnigan plays saxophone, flute and synthesizer and has a side-line in creating experimental music, which is available on Bandcamp.  For the purists, he sells it on cassette tape.
 
For more information: plusonegallery.com

Hedge issue 47, pp44-50, September 2017