George Raftopoulos Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte in the 21st century
oil and watercolour on linen
51 x 76 cm
Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte in the 21st century references George Seurat’s famous, similarly named painting. It revisits the same setting but gives it a contemporary twist. I have explored similar notions to Seurat, capturing the everyday and the ordinary, and in doing so shedding light on the extraordinary. But I present a landscape that is neither lush nor vividly green. The figures are besotted with technology as opposed to the gifts of nature, and appear to be floating on the barren landscape. The colours suggest the 21st century is now a hard place to exist. Hope is lost.
George Raftopoulos, 2018