Large Paintings

This series is my response to historical approaches to portraiture, reflecting my fascination with the many different dialects of the language of painting. Each painting is a kind of portrait, or a picture of the aura of an archetype.


"Before the Feast of the Devil" Oil and Acrylic on canvas, 9’ 2" x 7’ 8" 2010
As I worked, it connected itself with devil images from old master renditions of the Last Judgement.

 
 

"Shadow Face" Oil and Acrylic on canvas, 9’ 2" x 7’ 8" 2010
This painting is still a mystery to me. I think it embodies the Taoist sentiment: "Produce it but don't possess it."

 
 

"Saints Place" Oil and Acrylic on canvas, 9’ 2" x 7’ 8" 2009
A Saint's space is deeply personal, idiosyncratic, eccentric, focused, and, paradoxically, infinitely public. Here we see a visual maelstrom hearkening to Flaubert's "Temptation of Saint Anthony", with a serene still-life at the spiritual center of the painting.

 
 

"Crying Dummy" Oil and Acrylic on canvas, 8' 10" x 7’ 5" 2010

 
 

"Angel" Oil and Acrylic on canvas, 9’ 2" x 7’ 8" 2009
"Angel" is inspired by Cezanne's "The Bather" at MOMA, as well as by Michelangelo's "The Prisoners" sculptures. Both artists capture a human form mysteriously stepping or struggling out of an abstract matrix. As "Angel" evolved out of an abstract painting, I also questioned the reason for her presence in the painting, the nature of her existence, and her relationship to me--my motivations and my "male gaze". Like Vermeer's "Girl With a Pearl Earring", "Angel" is meant to be an offering of beauty that also confronts the viewer with the challenging and enigmatic return of her own gaze.

 
 

"Funny Face" Oil and Acrylic on canvas, 9’ 2" x 7’ 8" 2009
This portrait evolved towards a vision of the inner workings of a person, as evidenced by the dreamy washes acrylic underpainting, and the outer "skin" of multi-layered oil paint, forming patina, blister, callus: history.

 
 

"About Face" Oil and acrylic on canvas, 9’ 2"x 7’ 8" 2009 - 2010
This work evolved through the workings of my subconscious into a military portrait.

 
 

"The Large Detail" Oil and Acrylic on canvas, 8' 10" x 7’ 5" 2010

 
 

"Tuning Forks" Oil and Acrylic on canvas, 9’ 2" x 7’ 8" 2009
After having established a background of washes in acrylic, which created a dynamically drab landscape of deep space, I countered the low tone and wide-open organic field with linear forms in brilliant oil paint. These linear elements, nicknamed “Tuning Forks”, are actually two figures having formed their own gravitational equilibrium. They are provisional portraiture, where likeness is a nether quality and earnest seeming (potential) is everything.

 
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