Paintings in Pandemic Lockdown

I hope that all of you are well and healthy in all corners of the world. As professional painter I was practicing social distancing before it became popular and my daily routine in the studio did not change much with the lockdown. Painting was just a fancy name for solitude before the imposed quarantine. My production of paintings changed a lot during the lockdown. It started with the painting that addressed the discomfort of waiting.

When pandemic became dangerous and deadly my paintings drifted to the deeper end of the pool where questions of the paradoxes of our civilization started to dominate. Where was that wrong historical turn when reproduction of life was based on extraction from nature beyond the needs? How far can we go in this loosing game? What is the purpose? That was the time in this lockdown when I painted "Inheritance".

After this painting I turned towards the history of art looking for the periods when art was created during the plagues and wars. Interesting enough, Renaissance in Italy started to flourish after one of the most deadly plagues that Europe had ever seen. Art started to celebrate the life and new way of life. A bit later I stumbled on Spanish painter Francisco Goya who between 1819 and 1823 painted his Black Paintings. He was elderly and ailing, his country was in the civil war. He was trapped in his house out of Madrid loosing his mind and fighting with the visions of suffering. He started to paint on the plaster walls of his house and none of these paintings were intended for the public. "The Dog" is considered one of the wold's first Symbolist paintings. Since all art is just a reference to previous statements, I decided to borrow the dog for my own painting.

Goya's long dark slope was replaced with painted plaster on the wall with the same angle. The gray dog with nose facing right looks up the slope. The wall in my painting is symbolic representation of the problem. The figure with his back against the wall looks in the same direction in defiant act of the last cigarette. I couldn't make it more "pandemic".

My last painting of the lockdown was finished yesterday with more borrowing from Goya. This pandemic changed our attitude towards our supplies and food in general. Goya was entertaining the subject of hunger in his Black Painting. He painted "Two Old Ones Eating Soup" where two seated figures make pointing gestures at something in the dark. Hence, I painted Andy Warhol standing there with his famous Campbell's soup. His face is in horror, as it should be, since he was the one who convinced whole world that industrial soup label was art. Francisco, this is Andy, Andy, this is Francisco. They finally met at my canvas.

To counter all that darkness I have painted a lot of flowers as you probably noticed in my public posts. Those who were concern about my well being, should relax. I am fine. You are fine. This will end.

All the best.

Dan Petrov

www.danpetrovart.com

www.raphaeloilcolors.com