Woman's Face Painting

Painting is a powerful, surprising exploration. My work is about human expression and the human experience. I’ve painted a lot of faces cropped close up. Generally, don’t know the person I am painting, but rather, I am working from a photo I have taken in a crowd. The subject is captured in a private moment with a true expression, and not a staged portrait. Through the oil painting process, that human moment is presented. The experience is the subject of the painting. The paintings I create of my simplified “skinny guys” are also about the human experience. Their uniformity and generic appearance reveals an individuality of each figure upon a further look. Even thought they are cold, mysterious, and separated, they have some level of humanity. My work are objects obviously made by a human hand. I love the physical process of applying paint to the canvas. I prefer that the passion and excitement is visible in the paintings. Slathering paint on with a palette knife, creating washes, putting glazes over sections, and painting quickly allows me to keep the process engaged and active. The act of painting through various techniques, styles, and materials provides me the possibility of creating an art object beyond my initial conception. I want my painting instincts to take over, allowing a painting to takes its own direction. Being surprised by the art is the ultimate experience as a painter.