Exhibition Review 

Portraits of Emotions 

Paul Digby 

The Tetley 16 January- 1 March 2015 

Gaynor, Satwant and David
Gaynor, 2014, Acrylic matt paint and oil bar on canvas 1.5x2m
Satwant, 2014, Acrylic oil bar on canvas 2x3m
David, 2014, Acrylic oil bar on canvas 2x3m 

 Paul Digby created these amazing large paintings of people that was from Leeds Adult Social Care  expressing the emotions of joy.  Due to the negative news of abuse in care centres, this exhibition was a celebration of the happiness and joy that people in care centres actually felt. 

 When I was at the exhibition opening I actually saw one of the people that was in the painting who was acting out his painting. His face was full of delight and I felt like I could connect to the piece and all the other pieces even more as this person was actually so happy in life. By seeing the person in the painting, made the emotions more realistic to me.

The large canvases was located in different areas around The Tetley, but they didn't suit the interior of the building as these are modern paintings. I feel like these paintings should be located in a more modern gallery space as the old interior took the shine of the paintings as well as the canvases not being straight.

The painting technique was very neat and smooth in some areas and the use of acrylic and oil paint was used in a high standard, as you could see the canvases closely. 

There was also a selection of drawings that was created by local schoolchildren where they had to draw themselves or a friend in response to emotion of happiness in workshops that Digby did. These was interesting as it was intriguing on how the kids would draw the response of happiness. 

The mixture of the paintings and the kids drawings didn't really flow but they was separately interesting and I would advise for people to see this exhibition as the paintings was technically good and expressed emotions, it was just a shame that they wasn't more of these paintings. I feel like this exhibition was appropriate to me as I always want my work to capture emotions and I felt like this shown me a different way to express emotions through portraiture and paint.

Tauseef, 2014
Acrylic oil bar on canvas
2x3m