Head of a Bearded Man

Last Saturday my teacher kept the same pose for the morning and afternoon sessions and so I worked on a one-day  study inspired by Daniel Ochoa, whose paintings resemble vibrating sculptures cracking with volcanic fissures.

Ochoa often relies on the rhythm of vertical planes to keep the eye moving from left to right. For this composition I thought that horizontal prismatic bands of shifting scale would be more effective. I had in mind Federico Barocci's haunting studies of bearded men, and tried to express the same feeling in a contemporary manner.

Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 inches.