Painted primarily in pale yellow and icy blue, a central naked figure with eyes closed turns his face towards the irradiating sun, igniting his hair into a gold halo. There is a sense of transcendence caught in a criss-cross of sharp blue thorns and splintered branch shafts. Two dark frogs resting in his open palms create points of density that contrast with the diffuse, almost tie-dyed background.

This painting was conceived during Trojanowski’s recent time in Paris, where for a time he was divorced from his habitual forays into the wild forest in Genk, Belgium near where he resides. This raw wooded environment (still inhabited by wolves) is integral to his personal meditations on the nature of our ecological relationship with the world, as a location for solace and as a place of wonder. In this work, he employs his signature style of acidic and enigmatic landscapes to evoke the icy mood of winter and qualities of light.

I’m a shell is painted in oil on canvas.