Fraser (Boyhood)
In Fraser (Boyhood) (2017) artist Ishbel Myerscough depicts her son, Fraser. His direct wide-eyed stare and the intricate level of detail suggests the intimate relation between subject and artist. Myerscough explores human connections by painting her own children and those of her friends, as well as other family members. The resultant portraits are gentle interrogations of her subjects’ psychology.
The intricate depiction of small details such as hair, wrinkles, spots, and freckles, make her style highly realistic. The skin of the sitter is of particular interest: ‘It’s almost like you can see through the skin inside the person’. Fraser is an intimate study to this end. The zoomed-in perspective used for this portrait enables us to discover every freckle in the boy’s face. His faint moustache suggests the transitional period of adolescence – a time of great psychological adjustment.