Christopher Winter Kent, England, b. 1968
Atropena Belladona (Virgin forest), 2005
Acrylic on canvas
190 x 190 x 2.5 cm
74 3/4 x 74 3/4 x 1 in
74 3/4 x 74 3/4 x 1 in
© 2005 Christopher Winter / Cortesía Fundación AMMA
Photo: Alejandro Paez
Further images
A girl closes her eyes and shields her face with her arms. She is wearing a green dress. Because the painting is rotated, it is unclear whether she is lying in a meadow or standing in front of an idealized background, which is also green. Floating in the air are several small luminous spheres, which could be the threat from which she is protecting herself, although the cheerful atmosphere also suggests that the girl is playing with these beings. We can also find a clue in the painting’s title.
Winter’s work draws heavily on literary classics and fairy tales, whose characters he reinterprets in series until he arrives at a depiction of liminal spaces inhabited by beings who are themselves liminal—as, from a certain perspective, teenagers are. His clear, figurative painting serves to bring these hybrid worlds to life.
Winter’s work draws heavily on literary classics and fairy tales, whose characters he reinterprets in series until he arrives at a depiction of liminal spaces inhabited by beings who are themselves liminal—as, from a certain perspective, teenagers are. His clear, figurative painting serves to bring these hybrid worlds to life.