Pigott’s paintings are simple explorations of human characteristics that play with proportion and ideas of the surreal. His interest in how people perform in everyday life has informed his work and he attempts to exploit these characteristics of a person’s self-projection. A catalyst for this projection is fashion, which he makes poignant, whether in a humorous approach or through composition. Although photography plays a large part in his preparation, Pigott wants to maintain a distance from photographic realism.
'I feel keeping a division between the two enables an interesting detachment from real life, yet leaves a strong sense of realism. I’m constantly striving to improve my work and see what realism I can achieve with oil paint, but searching for an interesting differentiation from traditional portraiture.' - Tristan Pigott
In current developments technical exploration has added larger, freer brushstrokes to help deconstruct his image backgrounds, allowing the viewer’s eye to pass around the piece more easily as well as allowing figures to bounce off of the canvas.
Pigott believes it is important that his paintings are personal, even when exploring something that can be as transparent as a person’s socially constructed front, such as their fashion, or the clothes they wear. He does this by carefully selecting the models he chooses to paint, whether they are friends or family.
His work earns an ambiguity which draws the viewer in, allowing them to spend time working out the different connotations of the surreal narratives he has created.