Page 81 - Eye of the beholder

His imagination cascades through to an intense journey, replete with dream imagery brilliantly executed and intensely engaging. The strong modernist character to his works could partly be attributed to his creation of timeless space and his fragile sensitivity. In his work Pyne addresses the meeting point of polarities; material and immaterial, life and death, light and dark. His brooding dreamscapes populated with skeletal human and animal figures, masks and puppets are intimations of beauty, decay and impermanence.
Pyne’s painting “Demon at War” in the collection of Sadhus’ evidences the artist’s typical visual vocabulary. The demonic and terrified human form is delineated with spears jabbing his body and some in the process. Seemingly wearing armour that is paradoxical as it has openings allowing the spears to penetrate and injure the fragile body. A headgear apparently of bones and leaves crowns his head. The duality of human frailty and fragility contrasting with the hardness and protectiveness of the armour has Pyne establishing certain hard truths about life. Man will remain vulnerable in the face of smallest difficulties and countering will require metaphorically speaking martial like mental strength and wit. The open mouth and terrified full open eyes are only the physical dimensions of fear of difficulties encountered in life. Reinforcing these psychological and physical qualities is his manipulation of technique which has the textures of scratched strokes on the armour and very finely sprayed paint on the face and in the background.
The frontal, bold and sharp representation is as much terrifying and demonic as it is oneiric dredged from within his subconscious. The feeling of alienation is conveyed by Pyne, which in reality the loneliness can drive a person to madness. But for the artist his reclusive nature offers this as something natural of the human beehaviour. Nevertheless his rich imagination energizes the work to impart a dynamism and vibrancy that is only matched by his extraordinary perfected tempera technique. Further the quality of enigma and mystery is further enhanced by the quality of light which is deathly and pale that creates an aura of otherworld.
75