Claraland Painting

Claraland references two historical paintings: The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough and Pinkie by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Painted 25 years apart in the late 18th century, both paintings portray a child in the last years of childhood. Both are full length portraits, the subjects depicted outdoors, gazing towards the viewer. Traditionally portraits were intended to reveal something more about the subject than their likeness and artists relied on capturing a particular stance and expression to render the interiority of the sitter. Claraland does so as well but also goes beyond that by rendering the interior state through exterior imagery. This means of expression was exemplified in the paintings of Frida Kahlo.  The painting seeks to render the psychological and emotional space of the subject, Clara. She is a girl who has a richly developed inner life, whose imagination is inhabited by animal friends and dreamlike, archetypal characters. She is situated in a world of innocence, play and creativity. Her world is bounded but not entirely safe. Positioned at the edge of the canvas confronting the viewer, she displays surprise and wariness, seeking to protect her inner world from encroachment.  The details of her inner life are rendered in a subversive way; at first glance it seems realistic, but the details reveal themselves as unresolved, enigmatic. The ground on which she stands is a lawn of circus tent siding.  The menacing wolf is juxtaposed against the harmless stuffed animals to her right. Is the wolf a sentry, an embodiment of unresolved emotions? None of the foreground elements cast shadows, they seem to float on the scene.