Corina Dinu - The Gobbit — The Watcher

The Gobbit watches.
Not at you. Past you. Through the gold stripes, toward something you cannot see and it will not explain.
This is a figure that carries its entire interior world on the outside. Every zone of the body is a different language — dots that pulse like breathing, spirals that multiply without stopping, planes of colour that shift from terracotta to turquoise to deep red to silver-grey. Nothing repeats. Nothing rests. The face alone is still — a profile in perfect calm above a body that is anything but.
The background is black. Vertical stripes of gold leaf cut through it like light through a shutter, or bars that don't quite close. The Gobbit stands between them without looking at them. It has already decided.
This is the first painting in a series. The character will return. But this is where the story begins — and there is only one of these.
I built this in acrylic and gold leaf on heavyweight 390 g/m² cotton canvas, using palette knife, brush and mixed media. The surface is dense and physical — it changes in different light, at different distances. A photograph shows you the composition. The painting shows you something else.
Artist: Corina Dinu, Romanian, b. 1979. Studied Fine Arts and at the Istituto Marangoni. Exhibited internationally, including at the Tate Gallery and Rippingham, London.
Title: The Gobbit — The Watcher
Year: 2026
Technique: Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas, mixed media, impasto
Canvas weight: 390 g/m² cotton
Image size: 90 × 90 cm
Canvas size: 100 × 100 cm
Signed: Hand signed on the verso, lower right
Provenance: Directly from the artist.
Documentation: Certificate of Authenticity included.
Condition: Mint — painted in 2026, never exhibited, never framed, acrylic fully cured.
Shipping: Rolled and packed in a rigid protective tube, shipped with full tracking and insurance.