Cherry Hood Matthys

Matthÿs Gerber was Cherry Hood’s lecturer and supervisor during the first year of her recently completed masters degree at Sydney College of the Arts so she has known him for a long time. He is also her brother’s brother-in-law.

‘My subject is always the male body and head, and Matthÿs has the look I like when I paint,’ she says. Since a watercolour must be done in one hit, it has to be right the first time. Hood had made a sculpture of Gerber in the past which, though difficult, meant she knew his face well, making it easier to capture him in the painted portrait.

‘I am interested in the political, social and philosophical aspects of depicting the male body and how issues concerning the gaze and desire emerge when the subject is male,’ says Hood. ‘Matthÿs’ head, with his penetrating eyes, was ideal.’ As for the set of the mouth – ‘that is just characteristic of him’.