David Fairbairn
Double Lives _S.A. & D.F. No.3, 2021
charcoal, etching, acrylic on paper
76 x 60 cm
 

Artist statement

With the advent of COVID- 19 I was unable to work with my regular sitters. Fortunately for me, my partner, the artist Suzanne Archer, offered to sit for me in regular two hour sessions. 

One of the advantages of working with someone you are living with is that you can ask them to assume more personal poses, which came about from mutual discussion and often much hilarity! 

The resulting series Double Lives reflects a long and sustained personal and artistic relationship extending back more than three decades. 

Artist bio

Essentially a draughtsman who embraces mixed media on paper, or board predominately through a multiplicity of linear mark making to reveal the underlying form. 

The human figure particularly portraiture has been the dominating preoccupation over four decades. Frequently works large scale engaging the full reach of the body.

They are intensive observations of ordinary men and women in their later years. The drawings having undergone the same checks, adjustments and redirections as the lives of the sitters.

They are ultimately a reflection of the artists own ageing process and as such address the larger more universal questions of mortality, life after death?

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