Perit 1990

Boris Vallejo made this painting, Perit, at some point, using - it looks like - oil on board. The mark-making here is soft and blended, and the colour palette is pretty limited, with lots of dark blues and greys in the rocks and water, contrasted against a kind of peachy, golden tone in the sky and the figure. It feels super airbrushed, almost obscuring the process of its making. And, to me, it’s the figure that’s at stake in this image - clinging on between these huge masses of rock and ocean. The way the surface shimmers makes me think of those 70s fantasy paperback covers. If you think about someone like Frank Frazetta, and maybe you can see how Vallejo is in conversation with that artist and his oeuvre. The ambiguity of the image is its strength, it can be read so many ways!