Getting some perspective

Patrick Hughes, a British artist renowned for his unusual oil paintings, presented an exclusive exhibition of his Perspective collection at Harvey Nichols in Dubai last month.

Born in Birmingham in 1939, Hughes admits to being fascinated by paradoxes and visual trickery from a very young age. He developed a passion for doing things the ‘other way around’ during the war, where he slept under the stairs, looking at them in reverse. This was the start of his interest in three-dimensional paintings.

“Architects and designers are always taught perspective and, as such, I find that they understand it perfectly. I didn’t understand it at all at first,” he told CID.

“Making something on two dimensions look three dimensional is amazing. I always put my paintings together the wrong way round. They stick out at you, when conventionally they should go in.

“When people look at my paintings, I think they feel like they’ve been tricked by some sort of an illusion – all I do is make these paintings and people say they move. No, they don’t; there’s no machinery or hinges,” he added.

Having produced pieces for both residential and commercial settings, particularly in the hospitality sector, Hughes believes his artwork can contribute in creating a real feeling of space.

“If you put an image of a sticking-out room into an interior, it will create a hole in the wall, especially when it doesn’t have a frame. I have also found that they can create space by representing other parts of the building in them. For example, I may paint a sculpture, a view, or a carpet, onto my paintings, so it’s kind of self referring to the interiors,” he explained.

An exhibiting artist since 1961, Hughes hopes that his work will live on long after he himself is no longer around to promote it. “The reason I chose this industry in the first place is to be immortal. I’m fairly convinced now that when I’m dead my art will still be circling around galleries.

“Art is a unique commodity, a little bit like jewellery, very expensive – and useless – but you want to have it,” he joked. 

The ‘Perspective’ exhibition will be showing at Harvey Nichols in the Mall of the Emirates, Dubai, until March 21 2009.