Fallen No.3 2020

Owen Gent's Fallen No. 3 is a digital painting that throws you right into a quiet, interior space where something unsettling is going on. The figure, rendered in dark blue, is falling, or maybe floating, against the pale walls. I imagine Gent starting with loose sketches, maybe feeling out the composition, the weight of the body in space. The texture is amazing, it feels like gouache on paper, and the limited colour palette creates a kind of tense atmosphere. You can almost feel the texture. The way the light falls in the room is incredible, and the way the single red circle hangs in the corner is so mysterious. It makes you think about the relationship between control and surrender, something every painter grapples with. Like, at what point do you let the painting dictate where it wants to go? What's so great is that it captures a feeling, an experience that’s hard to put into words. It reminds me a little of Giorgio de Chirico's strange worlds, or maybe even some of Edward Hopper’s lonely interiors. It's all one big conversation, isn't it?