Girl from Patacancha by Jo Fraser is part of her exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery for the BP Portrait Award 2012. Girl from Patacancha is a portrait of a young girl Fraser met while in Peru. This piece is realistic and was observed first-hand. The frown on the face of the girl could have a deeper meaning referring to the hard work she has to do and the harsh conditions she could be working in as Peru is such an undeveloped country.
The portrait is arranged in the middle ground to make the audience only focus on the deep emotions of the girl. Fraser used a contrasting colour scheme focusing mostly on a black and white tonal portrait with bright pops of colour on certain details. The contrast of colour really makes the piece stand out and adds an unusual twist to what would be a classic tonal portrait. Fraser uses very soft and gentle lines and shapes to make the portrait look more realistic and real.She may have also used gentle lines and shading to contrast the harsh emotions on the girls face.
The portrait was created with graphite, conte, embroidery and collage on Antique paper. The graphite and conte create a soft shaded effect to the portrait as they are so easy to blend and add lots of definition. The embroidery Fraser uses is from her stay in Peru and adds an unusual 3D effect to the portrait and really makes it stand out. The bright red of the embroidery also adds a contrast to the black and white tonal portrait.The collage used adds some texture to the piece.
For the artist to have created this work she would have needed to have the skills to be able to present the shadows, highlights and definition of the human face to make the piece look like the original person. I think it would have taken the artist quite a long time to create this piece, as the portrait is really detailed and it involved a lot of research into the lives of the Peruvian weavers to be able to portray their feelings and their lives in the pieces.Personally, I think the purpose of this work was to share the lives of the weaves and to portray the strong emotions of the girl in the portrait to an audience who doesn’t know very much about these people. I feel the piece does achieve this purpose as it made me want to know more about what these weavers do and be amazed by the talent they have. I really like this portrait as the deep emotion on the young girl’s face really grabs the audience’s attention.
I also love the contrast of colours and textures and the contrast of the softness of lines and shading with the strong, bold colours used.
