"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.