Daddy Don't Jump!

Oil on canvas, 80 x 120 cm

The title, the look on the faces of the portrayed persons… everything suggest that a calamity is approaching for “daddy”. A soft evening light adds to the gloomy atmosphere. The young must save the old, but we do not know exactly what from. Is he close to having an accident? Is he jumping to kill himself? Is he doing do something dangerously foolish in a state of dementia?

The protagonist – “daddy” ‒ is not on the painting. He is exactly there where the viewer stands. Daddy might as well be the viewer. The picture the portrayed persons are taking is interrupted with their astonishment, but the way they are depicted themselves suggest that the painting is a (smartphone) photograph, as they seem surprised on the spot. Time is frozen in the middle of an action.