Branch I Painting

Tanya Fletcher’s current body of work consists of life sized figures rendered in oil with metal leaf backgrounds on Baltic birch. These multiple panel pieces are reductively painted. A monochromatic, even layer of oil color is applied and then selectively removed with a cloth. This results in a brush-free photographic-like realism. Also, the revealed grain of the wood suggests skin and/or contours of the body endowing the forms with a three-dimensional sculptural look. The illusion of depth & space is furthered by silhouetting the figures against a bright metal leaf background…a reverse chiaroscuro. The artist’s theatrical use of size & composition imbues these paintings with a taut level of emotional intensity. Fletcher’s acutely observed realism & objective approach to her figures also communicates a blunt psychological honesty & drama. This visceral aesthetic, however, still maintains an ambiguity.