Artist Jeffrey Batchelor definitely deserves a lot of attention having displayed the richness of his talent with his oil on canvas paintings. He demonstrates an interesting approach to the scenes he paints, creating a very magical and fun effects.
Conceptually, his work ranges from straight realism to surrealism, and from rectangular canvases to shaped canvas panels. Thanks to his extensive training in theatrical scenic construction. Often working with magnifiers, he delineate and define the myriad of reflections and refractions that exist within thick blown and cut crystal – realism for realism’s sake.
When realism becomes too constraining for him, he likes to reach into surrealism, to take an idea or a concept and develop it with a magical flavor. This allows him to elicit the viewer’s thought processes and visually define a concept, idea, or feeling. When a rectangle becomes constraining, he creates shaped panels that he paints in trompe-l’oiel fashion. This gives him endless possibilities for shape and depth illusions, as you will be able to observe here.
This is yet another painting inspired by the most famous painting in the world and perhaps the most influential artist of all time… “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci. It is artists hope that the viewer will forgive the pretentiousness of using such a masterpiece and appreciate his unique vision and execution.
This painting incorporates some of Jeffrey Batchelor favorite metaphoric symbols, the first and most obvious being chess. Artist likes using chess as a symbol of the daily struggles of our lives. In this painting the figure is in a state of deep contemplation while kneeling in a “dream” environment that is a giant chessboard. Small chess pieces are scattered at her feet while in the distance a giant rook has fallen, and soaring into the sky are a black bishop and a king, whose color is not easily discerable.The figure is dressed in a white sheet and there is a crown on the ground in front of her, marking her as the white queen. The black bishop is a symbol of religion …
