Artist Ross Watson speaks with Lucy Elliot about his new painting and photographic exhibition.

For over 20 years, Ross Watson has been creating exquisite photo-realist paintings that combine and contrast classical and contemporary imagery.

The resulting works are collected by identities such as Sir Elton John and Ian Roberts, and featured in the collections of numerous galleries worldwide.

Using striking male models, the images Watson creates convey intense emotions of intrigue and desire while referencing antiquity, Classical paintings and our current era.

In his latest exhibition, Catalogue XXVIII Photographs, Watson ventures into the world of photography.

“I decided to continue to explore the themes that I’d been exploring in my paintings, just with a different medium. I wanted to expand my direction and explore a little,” Watson explains.

The new works came about as he was working on Overview, a published survey of his work to date. “When we were working on my book I was forced to look through cupboards and drawers at transparencies and very early paintings that I made in my twenties, and I came across boxes and boxes of slides that I’d taken during my first trip to Europe when I was 18. Some of these, when I saw them afresh, over 20 years later, I was really excited by.”

Most of the works are triptychs. Majestic photographs of sunsets and woodlands sit alongside the masculine physiques of his models; and Roman ruins and antique sculptures evoke bygone eras in contrast with his subjects’ distinctly contemporary looks.

While the juxtaposition of the images may seem surprising at first, there are clear connections that can be made between the panels, Watson says.
“[For] me, and hopefully for many others, there’s continuity, an interest in relationships. There are visual patterns that link up. There are references in many of the [works] to antiquity, life cycles and mortality, which are quite important in my life right now.”

This sense of mortality, of thinking about one’s own death and that of one’s parents, is conveyed by Watson’s models through their poses, their introspective expressions, and in the landscapes they find themselves transported to.

“You capture something of your subjects’ personality. They appear self-assured … I specifically invite them to forget about me, and go into their own world, to imagine they are in a room by themselves. That’s when you get the best results,” he explains.

Art’s ability to move the viewer, to convey emotion, is at the core of Ross Watson’s work.

“For quite a number of years, a lot of contemporary art has been completely devoid of emotion. For me, emotion is the key ingredient of my work,” he says. 

Collingwood AFL star Paul Licuria features in one of the works in the exhibition – an intensely evocative photograph that was taken just one month ago.

“It was timely given he’d just announced he was retiring from playing football,” Watson says. “He looks very introspective and there’s a beautiful softness about him. I wasn’t interested in making what we’ve seen a thousand times before.”

Collingwood teammate Brodie Holland also appears in Watson’s latest collection, in a diptych in which his fine physique recalls the idealised imagery of the ancient Greeks.

Another familiar face in the series is that of Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears.

Having achieved a high level of success, Ross Watson is never one to rest on his laurels. “You always need to set new goals, get new hobbies and experience different things in life,” he says.

This advice for aspiring artists could apply to us all.

Ross Watson’s Silence Paintings: Catalogue XXVIII Photographs is on at Depot Gallery, 2 Danks Street, Waterloo, from February 26 to March 8 (11am-6pm Tuesday-Saturday).

Visit www.rosswatson.com for more information.

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