Mike Worrall cheekily lures the viewer into his labyrinthine, make-believe worlds. Worrall is a master of the art of blurring reality and fantasy. Theatre and illusion prevail, in these surrealist journeys into the imaginary, and if the wrong path is taken, who knows where it may lead. Worrall invites us to step beyond the threshold into the hinterland of the human soul. Each vignette, each composition, is in itself a perfect still from an unfinished film, perhaps left as a talisman by an obscure film-maker. Each painting celebrates a cultural succession borne of the Renaissance, followed by a dash of Baroque grandeur (think Velasquez), as well as the twentieth century champions of Surrealism (think Magritte and Delvaux) who developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself and interpret dreams.
Informed by his background in film, Worrall explores the mysterious and fantastical, as in a dream. His latest series has an oil paint application that is finely applied to the linen surface. He uses an illustrative, mark-making paint technique, the result being rendered, yet illusory, but with minimal loading of paint on the brush.
Paintings such as The Room of Looking Inwards, imply a profundity and paradox via optical illusions, mirrored surfaces and time-lapse scenery. Eccentric figures are humorously portrayed, faces reflected and street walkers lead us along meandering cobblestone walkways to curved glass and brass-framed shopfronts. The exquisite detail in the patina of a medieval building, an avenue of stone pines, and a costumed, imperious lady – demonstrate an obsessive dedication to his historically-placed scenery. It is a language reminiscent of the Renaissance era and Humanism. Irony and wit underscores a vaudevillian celebration of life, a Pan’s labyrinth of possibilities.
Worrall was born in 1942 in Matlock Derbyshire, UK. He has worked in the feature film industry as an “ideas artist”, and a Worrall painting famously inspired director Roman Polanski’s film Macbeth. Based in NSW, Australia, Worrall has been a practicing artist since the early 1960s, exhibiting both locally and internationally.
