Hi my name is Paul Porter and I am a part time painter working in oil paint. When not employed as an artist I work part time with the Health Trust as a diabetic eye screener. I did attend art college in 1980 and qualified as a graphic designer and have worked in design for most of my life. Its only in the last 20 years that I have taken up painting again.
Last year the Ulster Museum, here in Belfast, hosted a major exhibition containing two paintings by Caravaggio; 'The Taking of Christ' and the 'Supper at Emmaus'.
My painting 'Seeing is Believing' is my reaction to experiencing these paintings.
The exhibition was very well attended, especially on the days I went along. On one of these occasions I sat at the back waiting for the crowds to thin out so I could get a closer look. It wasn't really a huge leap in my imagination to think that the visitors to the museum could be seen to be part of the painting from where I was sitting. That they were in the same room in the inn where the supper was taking place. And the fact that they had mobile phones/cameras added to the suggestion that they too were capturing the moment the fellow traveller revealed himself to be the risen Christ. With the accessibility of the mobile phone we seem to record everything these days - from what we had for breakfast to a couple of masterpieces at the local museum.