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“Cold, Cold Heart” is one of the most experimental paintings that Ken Tolmie has ever done. The artist set out to create a work that exploited the brighter colours and expanded tonal range that oil paints permit. As the title suggests, the finished piece presents a contrast between cold and hot: the vivid reds and yellows create the impression of mannequins viewed under hot lights. In bright lighting, this painting positively glows: one can almost feel the heat emanating from it. However, the expressions on the mannequins’ faces suggests emotional coldness. It is contrasts like this that draw Tolmie to mannequins as subjects: they are synthetic objects that nonetheless transmit social information, causing the viewer to respond to them as though they were people. The artist’s original idea was to paint a mannequin in a bright red dress viewed against a neutral background. As the painting developed, the artist grew dissatisfied with this idea: it lacked drama, and looked too much like a conventional portrait. Using paint remover, the artist painstakingly removed as much as he could of the painting’s left and lower areas. He then added a second mannequin on the left and a partial figure on the right. However, the painting now felt cluttered; in the final version (right), the partial figure has been replaced by the dark background -- this background and the resulting asymmetry heighten the painting’s drama, and more effectively offset the central face. By enhancing the highlights of the vertical line, the artist pulled the painting together, clarifying the relationship between the two figures and strengthening the impression of a window. Unlike most of the earlier Window Series paintings, this one pictures an entirely made-up scene. The dynamism of the more painterly figure on the left contrast with the formality of the highly finished central face. “Cold, Cold Heart” provides a foretaste of what is to come in the Window Series: increasingly large, dramatic, and colourful oils. |
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