CAVE painting: the integration of oil painting with three dimensional computer generated environments

This paper explores the integration of two dimensional oil paintings with three dimensional computer generated environments within the context of examining a semi-immersive multimedia installation called CAVE Painting. This installation is made up of two dimensional oil paintings done from the live model, and three dimensional computer animation using digitised textures taken from the oil painting. It is presented on four large visual screens arranged in a room-sized cube into which the viewer enters. The oil paintings and the three dimensional computer animations are seamlessly integrated to produce a unified pictorial space.

I will discuss the integration of two dimensional oil painting and three dimensional computer environments in three ways: (i) examine the history of two dimensional and three dimensional pictorial space to clarify how two dimensional oil painting has directly led to development of three dimensional computer generated environments. (ii) how may we observe these theories concerning pictorial space in the techniques of figurative painters Frank Auerbach and Lucian Freud, and multimedia artist Char Davies (iii) applying these theories of two and three dimensional pictorial space, and the techniques of Auerbach, Freud and Davies to the multimedia installation CAVE Painting. It will be posited that there is a need for artists to apply an intuitive, organic and painterly approach to image making in three dimensional computer generated space.