“Fortunate Son” Original Painting By Christopher de la Motte

Artist Statment: The painting I chose to include in the show titled ‘Fortunate Son’ is a mid to large scale canvas painting depicting a mix of icons and figures from some of my favourite pictures and artists. Raphael, Caravaggio, Goya & van Haarlem with depictions of Mary, St Matthew, a Titan and a common blacksmith. I wanted to bring these supreme figures together on a neutral, relatively flat background and disrupt neutral colours with the addition of the fluorescent blacksmith figure. While painting the picture however I started to see the literary quality of the work as if it was telling a story. The love and protection of a mother faced with a world of doubt, absurdity and violence. Having said that, I see in the other figures, positive and vital elements I’ve picked up from friends and mentors throughout my life. The frivolity and playfulness of the upside down nude titan in the foreground, reminding me to never take things too seriously, the saint in the background dutifully going about his life’s work,

being inspired yet also fearing the unknown and the blocked out fluorescent blacksmith figure representing violence, as in some way we all become victim to or perpetrator of a kind of violence however small or large, its is the looming threat that keeps us alert. I think doubt is an essential ingredient for any undertaking, if you have no doubt I feel there’s nothing at stake, overcoming doubt is the source of triumph. While I don’t believe this interpretation of the painting is supreme or should be anyone else’s necessarily, all of these figures and the stories I imagine them having, for me, represents a home, a place where all of my family, friends and mentors are. In the words of Robert Frost ‘home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.’