Art History - Level 1

Swamped by Peter Doig

Oil on a canvas - 77.5 x 95 inches (197 x 241 cm)

This piece of artwork from Peter Doig, is of the Magic Realism genre, sharing an eerie feel with it's audience. Within this oil painting, we see a 'swamp land', including a background coated in trees, along with a lake, holding a reflection which confuses the eye with a complex paint application. There is an intentional want for a romantic, but uncertainty. The main focus is on the canoe, in the sense that it stands out - the use of white as the colouring is very effective. However, the shape of the canoe gives off a slightly fake impression, also because of the impeccable, yet so simple painting of the canoe, having a perfect reflection. Also, by using a single, motionless canoe as a staple piece, it sends questions to the audience - Why is there a canoe sitting in the middle of the lake? Also seen, are tree stumps, scattered through the artwork, as well as the trees of the background casting shadows into over the lagoon. Peter Doig successfully uses the concept of a reflective surface to portray a magical, but meticulously realistic image.
Also, if you closely below the moon in the painting, there looks to be a small structure - like a cabin. Is there someone in there? That was my first thought when I finally recognised, after many times of looking at it, that there was actually something there. It has made me realise, that a lot more can be seen if you keep looking.

Doig has explained that in this piece, that the use of reflection helped to create a wider image than what would have been intended. "The mirroring opened up another world. It went from being something like a recognisable reality to something more magical" is how Doig described this artwork.

Peter Doig has mentioned that a lot of his work is inspired by what he has seen in photographs, or things which he has photographed. What he does, is takes the image and recreates it through the eye of magic realism. His final pieces are intentionally made to look slightly disorientated in order to support the magic realism feel. Rather than using new oil, he prefers to use it from old tubes and tins, as a way of gaining inspiration for texture in his work.

There are techniques which Doig has used in Swamped that shows how he works well with different textures. Using oils, he painted this piece on quite a large landscape canvas (197cm x 241cm). He seems to have used brushes of different sizes, but it also looks as though he has used the edge of a palette knife to form finer lines in the artwork.
The colours used to create this artwork really add to the magic realism effect. It also looks as though Doig has flicked red, yellow, and white coloured oil paint off his brushes to give a speckled effect. It also looks as though he has used the edge of a palette knife to form fine areas - like the thin tree branches - in the artwork.

Few questions arise when viewing this artwork. When looking at it briefly, there are obvious questions making a point, however, if you were to look further into detail, there is a lot more behind the main objects.