Stephen Appleby-Barr’s paintings juxtapose fantastical and everyday objects, conjuring a dreamlike world which verges on the uncanny. Appleby-Barr sees his art as storytelling, touring museums and city streets in the search for characters and sets to introduce into his otherworldly universe. His dark, intimate settings, rich colours and dramatic lighting recall the work of renowned Baroque artists such as Caravaggio.
The present work testifies to Appleby-Barr's deft draughtmanship, with highly finished ink sketches creating magical and atmospheric worlds.
The setting of the work is anchored in a real place, the Sacre Coeur of Paris (despite what the note in the upper right margin may suggest), while a fictional environment is constructed around this structure. Populated with gnome-like figures and anthropomorphic creatures, Appleby-Barr includes the occasional human, reminding one that this is not an entirely fictitious world, but rather a reimagination of our own. The whimsical, vaguely familiar yet otherworldly scene exemplifies the surreal nature of Appleby-Barrs works, blending fact with fiction.
