The winner of The Cass Art Prize is Martha Zmpounou for her painting ‘Christian’
Martha says:
Part of a series of artworks and face studies, ‘Christian’ is the portrait of an Italian friend from Syracuse, Sicily. Created through multiple layers and washes, the aim was to develop the painting by continuously responding to the medium’s inherent qualities; its fluid and seemingly transparent nature.
This process involved embracing and incorporating accidental bleeds into the outcome, as well as leaving areas of the painting ‘undone’, to some degree, while working in more detail in others.
The objective was to capture the apparent imperfections of the skin and its fragility, echoing the fragility and transient nature of emotions, as well as subtly convey the introspective element in Christian’s look, a mix between melancholy and contentment.