Thursday, April 21, 2016

Two New Paintings

I recently completed two large paintings, Elliott and Dea 5, both acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 inches.



In contrast to the loose brushwork of Freddy 3 and Christophe 3, for these new paintings I focused on unbroken lines, sharp edges, and simple color themes.

These works seem a lot less experimental than my previous efforts, but I was trying out some ideas on push-pull spatial effects (Hofmann), optical mixing (Seurat), and synesthesia (Kandinsky). In addition, I've been looking at portraits by Warhol and Alex Katz and thought it might be fun to emulate their bold, in-your-face graphic style.

This process required more premeditation - i.e. nailing the drawing in the first session, rather than letting it emerge organically.through repeated sittings from the model. In some ways I appreciated the lack of indecisiveness, but I also missed the intuitive breakthroughs that can sometimes happen when you're not really sure of what your final image is supposed to look like.

I'm currently working on a new portrait, which can go either hard-edged or less so. Let's see where it takes me.

Update:

 Here are photos of both works in collectors' apartments: