Peacock 2005

Nelson Shanks made this painting, titled Peacock, using what looks like oil paint. It’s a riot of images within images, an abundance of people and things, yet they somehow connect through these strange compositional lines and colour repetitions. I wonder what it was like for Shanks to make this? Did he have a plan? Or did it all sort of… emerge? I mean, you can sense the painting as a site of inquiry for the artist. The colour is just fabulous, with these rich reds, purples, and blues. It is dense in the way that everything in the image seems to be layered. Look at the woman in the throne; she's adorned in these amazing garments and jewelry. Her dress echoes the deep red and purple hues of the draped fabric. There is a relaxed nude figure at the top with a violin, with the light catching her body in such a sensual way. The paint looks so smooth you almost want to reach out and touch it. Shanks’s Peacock reminds me of the work of Alice Neel, not just in the figurative elements, but in the use of realism as a vehicle for self-expression. These artists show us that painting can be a conversation across time, that we inspire each other. Ultimately, painting embraces this ambiguity, which allows us to have our own experiences and create our own meanings.