Art of War

I went out to Iraq and Afghanistan with few preconceptions, but returned deeply humbled and full of an overwhelming respect for the British Military.

As an artist, I have always been fascinated by the power of the still image to express human history, but feel that today in our media dominated age, the often-neglected potential within a painting to communicate grows more urgent. With ever increasing visual noise demanding our attention and images readily available to us at the touch of a button, it is important to bring our focus back, through silent forms of communication, to the quieter but no less extraordinary, realities of contemporary conflict.

Life becomes acutely compressed under conditions of war; courage greater, motivation stronger, emotions sharper, heroism more terrible and more exhilarating in turn. A soldier may go through a range of emotions in one day that we civilians might not experience in a lifetime. It is the quiet indomitability of these men that I hope my work does justice to.

Lady Elizabeth Butler wrote of her work, ‘I do not paint for the glory of war, but to portray its pathos and heroism.’ A century and a half later, our soldiers are still ordinary men, doing extraordinary work under extraordinary circumstances. What I try to paint is the experience of the ordinary soldier, the poetry and pathos behind the frontline, and the humbling truth beyond the headlines. In essence it is the spaces in between, it is the human face of conflict.

Arabella Dorman 2011