Tabellarius Painting

Tabellarius ("Carrier/Bearer") uses a rhinoceros as a vehicle, giving the viewer a familiar point of entry to the painting. On closer inspection muddy colors clash, the texture alternates between silk and sandpaper, the anatomy is impossible and the composition uncomfortable. Traditional views on good practice in representational oil painting have been selectively discarded or adapted to achieve the freedom to assemble a new thing from pigment and oil. An abstract painting might achieve the same goal, but when meaning, structure and texture are primarily derived from the process of painting and the properties of paint rather than, as would be expected, a study of the subject, the significance of the pigment, oil and brush marks is more powerfully emphasized. Proper disclosure: The frame currently on this painting (a lightweight plastic frame) has slight bulges on the corners where the frame staples where inserted. The damage is hardly noticeable, but if you want it to be 100% flawless I'd recommend having it reframed at some point with a sturdier wood frame.