Not a Painting

By Lea Torn

I studied at Glasgow School of Art in the early nineties, gaining my degree in Fine Art (Painting). I subsequently chose an easier vocational path and have worked as a Graphic Designer for most of my career. I still paint occasionally and do some commission work but my main creative outlets are music and photography.

The piece ‘Not a Painting’ was born from the idea of rather than creating a painting which looks photorealistic, to create a photograph which blurs the lines and at first glance may be taken as a painting in the classic style, using the often visited theme of Memento Mori. The image depicts a real scene set up in my then studio – the only ‘manipulation’ being the blending of different exposures to balance the light across the image. I used a cropped version of the image as the cover for one of my band’s albums.