The group now houses such an assortment of awesome artworks that I created folders for specific genres, in case people want to look at a specific kind of fine art.


photography:[link]
Surreality (for Surrealistic creations):[link]
Impasto (for thickly painted canvases):[link]
Self-portraiture:[link]
psychedelic and spiritual:[link]
Under the influence of Bacon (for works reflecting the influence of Francis Bacon):[link]

I'll add more categories later (probably for collage, drawings, political works, sculpture…). The way I'm handling the galleries now is that works will go into the "fine art archive" folders, but will be copied into other specific folders periodically. Some pieces can be in multiple galleries, for example: self portraiture AND impasto. I'm a connoisseur of an array of genres and tend to like my art mixed together without preference for one particular medium, style, or content, which is why I put them all together however they may fall (which is largely dependent on when people accept my requests for their art, if they do…). But over nearly a year some kinds of works have become quite interesting themselves, such as thickly painted canvases, and so I want to showcase them in a group. I'm allowing people to submit directly to those galleries, or to "artists submissions".

Below are some gems from each gallery.


photography:



add title here by BenoitPaille [link]

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Surreality:



the germ of unconscience by Mihai82000 [link]

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IMPASTO:



Clyde Barrow by LikeBenjiReadingOvid [link]

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Self-portraiture:



duckling by ramvillas [link]

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psychedelic and spiritual:



Transfixion by Eric Kuns: [link]

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Under the influence of Bacon:



porn kings by antitianvs: [link]

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Note that I'm still getting around to the Bacon feature, but think I've already amassed the most impressive collection of Bacon influenced work on DA. In the next two weeks (looks like I have 2 weeks off of work) I hope to finish my own new addition to the gallery, and do the promised big journal entry.

Hello FAA (Fine Art Asylum) members!

I've created a folder for all the Francis Bacon influenced art that has made its way into the group: [link]

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Bacon was an enormously influential artist, and arguably one of the very best painters of the twentieth century. For a long time he was my absolute favorite artist, before I stopped having favorites. His influence can be seen in much of my own work, and in a lot of the work of artists on DA (JJuron, Protagonist, Lung, antitivans, Andrew Newton, and RyckRudd most conspicuously). His influence may have an impact on artists who don't even know who he is (they may have absorbed it through secondary sources) but still paint geometrical shapes to enclose their figures, or obscure their features with violent swatches of paint, both of which techniques are among Bacon's trademarks.

You are encouraged to submit your Baconesque art or suggest favorites (I tinkered with the admin settings to allow submissions of favorites, and if it's Baconesque I'll easily recognize that and move it to the Bacon folder). Some artists didn't accept invitations to include their work in the group, so they are not represented, or the pieces are not represented. I'd like to change that.

After about a few weeks there will be a big journal feature with large-ish images of the best Bacon influenced work on DA. There will likely be commentary on the artists and the pieces represented, as in former features.

After that 10 of best images will be included in a poll for members to vote on their favorite.

Finally, a widget with images of the "winning" artwork, and perhaps a couple runners up, as well as thumbs of the others, will become a probable permanent feature on the group page.

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If you are not familiar with Francis Bacon, below is a picture of him and one of his paintings from his "mature period".





This (the left panel of a Triptych) is one of my favorites [Three Studies for a Crucifixion, 1962]:




The next one shows the sort of geometric shapes he would surround his figures with [Triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, 1969]




Bacon's studio, where it all happened

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Now, if you feel like it, you can look at the "Under the Influence of Bacon" folder and see some of the similarities between his work and that of DA artists. [link]

Again, feel free to submit work to this folder so that I might include it in the feature and contest.

~ Eric

Featuring non-representational art from the Fine Art Asylum Archives

or you could say: "Holy Crap it's an Abstraction Extravaganza!"

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Let’s just get out of the way the difference between “abstract” and “non-representational,” which are usually used interchangeably, including by yours truly. “Abstract” is similar to “distorted”, as in an altered version of reality (Think “Cubism”). Much of the confusion must come from the “Abstract Expressionists” who were actually “Non-representational Expressionsists,” but that didn't sound as cool. Non-representational means it doesn’t look like a rendering of anything, at least not intentionally. A Jackson Pollock canvas is non-representational, even if Francis Bacon thought they looked like “old lace,” but you could say that Cezanne's famous paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire were abstracted (and they are generally regarded as leading the way towards Cubism and other abstract styles to come).

The pieces I'm showcasing in this journal are wide ranging in terms of approach and medium, but all of them are far more substantive than the mere benign "decoration" that abstract or non-representational works are sometimes consigned to. Usually I try to sneak my works in these journals somewhere near the bottom, but this time I’m going to put one front and center, because it’s a good example of “non-representational art” and also of the possibility this kind of art has to evoke all the dynamism of the real without actually depicting it.



Rorschach Experiment 01 by Eric Kuns, digitally created [link]

I've discussed this work in another journal [link], so will give you the encapsulated version here. While there isn’t anything  in the image that is intended to look like anything specific that exists, the self-entwining globule in the upper left evokes a consciousness. Overall it conjures an intelligence fluctuating between interior and exterior, dissolving and becoming, separation and integration, and all the while interacting with other apparent selves in a realm of flux.

Some close-ups:



And here is an animation showing several stages of the process:



Now, on to other artists' works!

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Stairway To Heaven by HelaLe (Hela Zidovnik Lesac from Croatia), painting [link]

Apparently, this one’s based on the Zeppelin song (“Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run there's still time to change the road you're on.”). There’s a lady that’s sure all that glitters is gold, but sometimes it’s paint. I don’t know the artist’s intent, other than to capture some of the ambience of the song (which I think she did), but I just find that the image has that unmistakably tangible quality of "the real", in terms of color and texture, foreground and background, while not exactly portraying anything.

Below are thumbs of a few of her other vibrant and intriguing non-representational paintings.

:thumb316257687:

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Landscape n.174 p.3 by Pluto52 (Morino from Italy), painting [link]

Definitely rich with the colors and textures of a landscape. I like this the way that sometimes if you see an artist’s palette (y’know, the kind they hold in their hand and mix their paint on), it can be as beautiful or more beautiful than the actual painting. I love the thick paint, the evident brush strokes, and the bristle trails. This has that wonderful duality of looking both like paint heaped up on a flat surface, as well as an illusionistic image in three-dimensional space.

Below are a few more of his pieces with these same qualities:

  

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W-out 0064 ' Omen Solstitium ' by W-out (Wout Werensteijn from the Netherlands), painting [link]

This one looks to me like a slice of something, marble, or the atmosphere of Jupiter. Someone posted that it looks like, "a sea with rocks near the shore." Whatever is suggests to you, it has motion and tumult, as if it shows an instant in a process of something evolving. The colors are what makes if for me, especially the ranges of oranges and pinks.

Below are thumbs of a few of his other non-representational pieces in the archives.

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D.K. by Bernardumaine (Bernard Dumaine of France), digital painting [link]

Wow! I don't have to tell you what this one looks like. I know what you're thinking. Non-representational Dali, with some Yves Tanguy and Max Ernst mixed in. It's classic Surrealism. This was done digitally, and while I have some ideas as to how, the technique is remarkably refined, to the point where I just assumed it was done in oils.

Below are a few other similar works by the same artist:

  

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Powidok III by schodowski (Krzyszt of Ireland), painting [link]



Powidok I by schodowski (Krzyszt of Ireland), painting [link]

Most Krzyszt's pieces on DA are black and white drawings, but at some point he tackled non-representational work gorgeously. He's got a series for 4 such pieces, which look like they were painted with a knife or other hard implement, and have some overlap with the work of Gerhard Richter. I don't know whether I enjoy the texture of the buttery layers of paint or the naturalistic colors the most. Each of the paintings seems a bit like a tilted landscape with a boarder, as between sea and land, or land and sky.

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movement3 by AFALLDEN (of Sweden), painting [link]

AFALLDEN's pieces are very different from the preceding ones. Less organic, they resemble spaces filled with inanimate objects, like things we might find in a supply warehouse. The image above conjures rooms of tubes or rubber strips piled in a heap. The one thick yellow line (looks something like a hose) differentiates itself from the rest, and a couple pieces at the edges seem to cast shadows. Overall the piece strikes me as both conceptually and aesthetically sophisticated and interesting.

The following are similar works by AFALLDEN:

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Promotion by kuuramantoonis (Kira Leigh of USA), painting done with "neon acrylics, pastel gouaches, and nail polish" [link]

Kira's work has a loose, wildness about it that I admire and would like to introduce into my own work. It's already brave to paint with "neon' and "nail polish". What's even more fascinating about this non-representational image is what the artist seeks to communicate through it.  Notice the brash swirling of fluorescent green loops on a radiant pink backdrop. I'm most intrigued by the conglomeration of material just right and below the center of the canvas. I could tell the piece was brimming over with humor, irony (sarcasm even), and a kind of rebelliousness, but none of that really prepared me for the artist's comments under the image. The piece reflects and conveys the artist's disgust and outrage at office politics, hierarchies and patriarchy. As much as I'd love to quote her comment in it's entirety, it might distract too much from sensibilities of the other artists I'm featuring. However, taste of these gems, and I encourage you to follow the link to read her full rant.

The only power I’m allowed to have (so far in my newly budding role) is that of a cute mom, or a cute data girl—everything relies on my ability to be neon pink and adorable so I have to be the sweetest damned cupcake in the world until I find a way to shoot razors out of my mouth that always hit the jugular.

Having spent a goodly portion of my life in offices, I love that this piece rages against office culture!

This is a piece about femininity. Its called promotion, all lower-case. I made it using Dali’s paranoiac-critical method of working, neon acrylics, pastel gouaches, and nail polish. It glitters like a cheap whore.

Who else does a non-representational painting that is a mockery of imposed ideals of femininity, and succeeds?!

Here are a couple more of Kira Leigh's non-representational pieces (and a couple from the archives that have imagery, but would work as non-representational without the recognizable subjects). :

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Superacid Lime by pbxn109 (Nicolas T. of France), Acrylic on canvas (50x50cm) [link]

Red used to be my favorite color, and then one day it just changed on me when I was 40. Suddenly it turned to a fresh green, and I think it was triggered by seeing wide stretches of freshly growing rice fields when I was riding a bike in Hoi An, Vietnam. I think it might have something to do with an instinctual, primordial satisfaction with a glimmering full harvest. So, you can guess where I'm going with all this: I just love the colors in this painting. As one person commented on his image "I like the feeling of topography, the suggestion of an alien landscape!" There's definitely something of a landscape, but also of a wall or embankment showing signs of rising and lower tides, or the growth of algae or moss.

more related works by the same artist below

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Alaska rye by zeruch (Joseph of USA), "acrylic paint, acrylic ink, collage on masonite and bristol, scanned and de/reconstructed digitally" [link]

This one has some marvelous semi-transparent textured layers, which had to be created with his multi-staged technique that incorporated paint, collage and computer manipulation… Notice the deep reds glowing through the striated textures in the top left. The overall impression is something like looking through an old windowpane, and only seeing a few clues as to what may be contained inside. The surface itself is beautiful, and the mysterious "R" signals a kind of "Symbolism" this artist employs in his non-representational pieces. The drips bleeding to the right also add an element of time and substantiate the feeling of corrosion.

See more related works by the same artist below

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Photoshopped Landfill Compactor Detail Abstract by aegiandyad (UK) Photo + Photoshop [link]

This artist has a lot of vibrantly colored works that I can't help but click on. Frankly, that orange sphere on the green background is sublime. This is a photo tinkered with in Photoshop (I'm guessing messing with "curves" and "color balance"…), and while this would be world class if it were a painting, it's still spectacular. The artist has to have a great eye for color to achieve these results. Only 66 people have clicked on this, so I wonder if people just don't know what to do with this sort of art. I also like to take pictures of textures, so I can get right into it. When I take photos like these I call them "ready mades" because they look like really cool abstract paintings. None of mine came out this brilliant, however.

here are some more of the best "abstracts" by aegiandyad

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Heart and Seat by OneLifeOneArt (Justin R. Christenbery of USA) Painting [link]

And here we have mystical, visionary non-representational art. This looks a lot like those photos you might have seen taken inside the curl of a wave, but the painting isn't that literal. It seems rather about the tumultuous nature of creation itself, which is a theme we see in several of the artist's paintings. Apparently the photo of this painting was taken while it was "in progress," but I like it as it is, and prefer it to the painting which got the DD. I'm particularly drawn to the dark-brown objects at the top, that could be back-lit clouds, but what I like to think of as matter hurtling through some burgeoning organic process on a massive scale.

Below are more visionary abstract/non-representational pieces by Justin R. Chistenbery

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FEELING THE VOLUME by anjusha (Ana Loncar of Cfroatia) Photos [link]

And finally another photographer with an amazing eye for color and found compositions. In this work we have a conspicuously surrealist abstraction. If you know the art of Yves Tanguy, that's what this image brings to mind. (If you don't know his famous pointing, "Mama, Papa is wounded," you can Google it to see the resemblance). This artist is very good at framing pictures in such a way that perspective is flattened, which helps create the mimicry of an abstract painting. Plus, I'm a big sucker for photos of reflections on liquids, and this one is part of a spectacular pair.

Here are some more quasi-surrealist non-representational photos

I've resettled in Chiangmai, and now have a little free time to resume care-taking of the asylum and it's inhabitants. On to business.

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Check out this new oil painting by Bryan Kent Ward!

Bryan Kent Ward must be one of the most overlooked artists on DA, which reminds us that lots of "views" and "favorites" can sometimes mean nothing, and virtually nonexistent "views" and "favs" can accompany world class works. Bryan doesn't seem to spend much time, or any, trying to promote his work here. However, I'm having a cup of coffee and think I'll do a little promotion for him. First take a look at the full painting, which addresses issues of the brutality of war, spiritual transcendence, and the existence of the latter within the former (or more likely the opposite = the material in the realm of the spiritual). If you look at the painting with a little time and consideration, you might agree that it's a disappointment that it fell so flat on DA, only noticed by a few people while it fell through the cracks and quietly sunk into the murk below. I, at least, will shine a light on it.



Meditation in a War Zone by Bryan Kent Ward (9 Feet by 3.5 Feet oil on stretched canvas) [link]

Bryan was inspired by a Dalai Lama quote, which he paraphrased as, "one should be able to meditate in a war zone". This is quite the opposite of something a friend of mine used to say, "anyone can be enlightened on a mountain top, but go ahead and try to keep your cool in the heart of the city," or something along those lines. Bryan adds that the "burning oil fields" in the painting were influenced by a Werner Herzog film – 'Lessons of Darkness' – "about Kuwait before and after the attack on Iraq in 1991".

Just take a few seconds to appreciate the rendering of the apocalyptic billowing columns of smoke arising from the burning oil fields. I would score this painting a hit for the treatment of the range of orange reflections of the pillars of smoke alone. And then there's the liquid plane of bloody oil. Must have been an interesting project of mixing the oils to make the bloody oil colors.

Fortunately, Bryan provided us with close ups of the sections of the painting, and they work on their own as well.

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Meditation in a War Zone Right (section) by Bryan Kent Ward (9 Feet by 3.5 Feet oil on stretched canvas) [link]

Here we see the horror of the (oil) field of battle. In the main figure, dismembered, suffering and suffocating, we can see in the pose a sort of entreaty to the heavens that reminds me a bit of the old saying that "there are no atheists in foxholes." In such a situation any of us might look upward for some sort of answer, salvation, anything, regardless of our convictions when sitting in a recliner commanding the remote. There is a cruciform in the reflection of one of the lenses of the goggles (it could be a bomber), which again indicates the yearning for something greater to remove one from the general corporeal morass and obvious hopelessly dreadful situation. We can also see another figure creeping along like a wingless pterodactyl. Ward has used the gas masks to give the figures a bird-like essence. Notice also the crashed helicopter and rocket flare.

[Incidentally, there are some similarities here to a couple of my drawings from around 1990-1992]

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Meditation in a War Zone Center (section) by Bryan Kent Ward (9 Feet by 3.5 Feet oil on stretched canvas) [link]

The focus of the center section is clearly the mother and and child, with her arm raised up possibly in protest or asking for it all to stop. The mask, again, emphasizes she is a naked animal vulnerable to all the suffering we might only expect creatures to endure, finding convenient excuses to remove ourselves from such harsh realities. I'm not sure if the blood on her hand is from an injury, or whether there has just been a birth, which would be followed by a near instantaneous death.

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Meditation in a War Zone Left (section) by Bryan Kent Ward (9 Feet by 3.5 Feet oil on stretched canvas) [link]

In the left section we see the meditating figure, presumably in a state of mystical transcendence of the material plane. Is this really achievable? Could one calm oneself into a state of samadhi while bombs are falling all around and every inhalation is filled with smoke and the stench of death? One could only hope so. Perhaps the circumstances would give one incentive to meditate with a singularity of purpose one would not have if it were just a normal day of "business as usual."

Let me tell a little anecdote. I am nothing much of a meditator, but did practice just enough to have some notion of what it's about. About 6 years ago I moved from my country to live abroad. Midway through the flight I discovered that my wallet had been lifted. So I would arrive in a new, non-English speaking country with no money at all, and no ATM card. I had all the standard feelings of anger, nervousness, dread, and all manner of thoughts about how my wallet had been stolen, how I could have been so stupid… My mind got caught in a loop of the same thoughts. Finally I sat upright and starting counting my breaths until other thoughts other than breathing eventually ceased, and I found myself rejuvenated, calm, and ready to face the situation without apprehension. I arrived in the airport smiling.  I call that "emergency meditation". The figure in the painting is doing much more, because, well, I have never achieved satori.

You could say that the figure is not oblivious to his circumstances, but has risen above them to a perspective of the spirit, from which the actions of men are like toyings with pieces on a board game. If one were, say, one with the universe, the effects of evil acts in one small area would lose their immediate horror, or rather the significance of the horror (what Susan Sontag calls "the banality of evil") would be subsumed in the greater reality of the totality of conscious existence in which stupidity and cruelty do not reign supreme, but are more like mere projectiles of bird-shit on the windshield of consciousness. They are obstructions and cancers. The artist has depicted various chakras. I have no experience of chakras and don't really believe in them as of yet, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating the symbolism and general intent.

To the left of the figure we find a veritable pharmacopeia of entheogenic plants, including an Amanita Muscaria mushroom (that's the red one with white spots we all know from "Alice in Wonderland"), San Pedro Cactus, Peyote buttons, Datura, and Salvia Divinorum. Those certainly might give one's capacity for meditation a turbo charge, but I presume they are just there as symbols of traditional mediums for transcendence used by shamans and others in native societies such as the Oaxacan Indians. Or perhaps the meditator imbibed one of them.

Finally, note the dove of peace perched atop the cannon in the foreground, and the squadron of airplanes meeting the flock of birds head on on the surface plane of the picture.

This giant oil painting is a serious attempt by the artist to grapple with the extremes of existence, from abject horror and destitution on the material plane, ruled by modern day mental dinosaurs (and their antediluvian predatory selfishness), to a blissful psychedelic transcendence. For many the former is reality and the latter is fantasy. Would that it were the other way around!

This underrepresented work has been up on DA for over 50 days at the time I am writing this, and has but 36 views. I hope that through this group I can give more exposure to serious artists such as Bryan Kent Ward.

Lastly, here are some more of his works you might find interesting

One of the very best artists I've discovered on DA (and who I've recently featured in this blog) is Andrew Newton, who did rather tight photo-realistic paintings in the past (the type that show every wrinkle, reflection, and wayward hair); but his new work, which will be part of a group exhibition in London, has broken out imaginatively into new terrain that faithfulness to mundane reality alone would never have taken him. The new works are wild, a tad violent, a little gross, and yet overall fresh. His new works show the influence of the 20th century masters of experimental figurative and representational art, such as Chuck Close, Gerhard Richter, and especially Francis Bacon. While his early work was strong in the Chuck Close, hyper-realist vein, the daring new Bacon/Richter influenced works show real promise going forward, and also represent Andrew’s venturing off in his own trajectory. I dare say he’s learned from the masters, assimilated their teaching, and begun to take it in a new, unchartered direction. He invited me to blog about his new show, which I was happy to do.

Below is the flier for the upcoming exhibit

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Now let's take a closer look at a few of the startling new pieces he's produced.



Study of Cathy and Mug by ~Andrewnewtonart [link]

Oh no! Ouch! As a painting this has a lot of vitality: vivid color, energetic brushwork, and a variety of methods of applying paint (such as pressing it on with something like a cloth). But the effect is as unsettling as a graphic photo of an operation. The thick red line under her eye, and the reds and whites coming together in a mash of pigment, suggest injury, shock, and the unforgiving randomness of reality. Francis Bacon often spoke of the “brutality of fact,” (Bacon was once completely overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the blood on the pavement after a car accident) and this kind of existential cruelty is evident in Andrew's new work, which not only takes a microscopic look at mundane reality as it appears, with all it’s unappealing imperfections, but integrates random accident in the non-representational segments. Despite the process of grappling with reality contained in the work, the result, no matter how graphic in it’s feel, is nevertheless beautiful. THAT is what makes this work so powerful. It’s so ugly it’s beautiful. There is a beauty even in the mundanity of everyday existence, and the random accidents or misfortunes that disrupt the fantasies of order and coherence we impose upon naked reality.




Study of Ade by ~Andrewnewtonart [link]

This piece is another punch in the face, jolt of reality, replete with paint suggestive of blood and contusions. Where’s the corner man? I think this boxer is ready to throw in the towel. Humor aside (he’s not really a boxer), this really does speak of the potential of injury. As with the painting of the woman with a mug, the subject is frankness incarnate. We have the one, unflinching eye fixed on us, while the other is obliterated in a wide swatch of viscous paint trail. Andrew said this in his description of the painting:

I want the painting to look like its been attacked from an outside source, and so morphed into something more.

I feel this is the way I want to demonstrate a realistic perspective of someone, part detailed and part deformed from the minds eye.

Study of Lara by ~Andrewnewtonart [link]

When I said that the work has an element of violence, I definitely didn’t intend that the artist wishes violence on his subjects. If anything, I’m quite confident he wishes them anything but that. Rather, he addresses the violent nature of reality itself through his cooperative subjects: the surprise of unveiled reality. In his early works he appeared to want to face the mundanity of reality, look under every rock and in ever corner for whatever ungainly or horrific spectacle he might find. The new work goes further, tapping a crack in that reality, out of which a stream of paint gushes. Something’s broken through. It is this attempt to grapple with engaging reality through imagery, trying to convey a philosophical understanding with pigment and brushwork, that I find so appealing in his work. And what exactly has broken through the surface he’s examined so painstakingly? I don’t know. On the naked surface, however, this image almost looks like a woman was slapped across the face while eating jelly beans. One can’t entirely escape lingering scenarios of domestic violence, and one of the white squares in the abstract section could easily be a dislodged tooth. As in his earlier work, Andrew tries to capture the subject in a sudden, unposed, natural instant, then labor over that instant and blow it up to gigantic portions. Below is a view of his studio while he was working on such images.




The next image I've already featured before, as well as a picture of Andrew painting it. I include it again because it's part of the new series, and also as a segue into talking about his technique.



Black eyed dog by ~Andrewnewtonart [link]

If you don’t know, the subject of this image – Nick Drake – is a phenomenal singer/musician who suffered from depression, was reclusive, and died at the age of 26 in 1974 from an overdose of a prescribed antidepressant. He got no recognition in his short lifetime for his unique and irreplaceable music. Despite the sad facts of the subject’s life, he is treated to less existential violence than the other subjects in the series. The paint that “attacks” his visage is composed of natural greenish and purple colors. In this case the release from the prison of factual reality, which the splash of paint may represent, could be the same outlet as his creative genius.

So far I’ve neglected to address that the “abstract” swatches of paint that appear superimposed on the portraits, also exist on the surface of the picture plane. This serves to remind us of the dual nature of the art in question: it is both a realistic representation of the subject in three dimensional space, AND it’s a bunch of paint heaped on a canvas. The dual nature of the image signals the duality of the method and message as well.

First let’s tackle the method. Andrew paints the subject based on a photo. He puts a grid over the photo, makes the same proportioned grid on the canvas, and then uses that as a guide to faithfully reproduce the image. I’ve used that same technique (though it’s much easier to use a projector).



The next part is where it gets more interesting.  Andrew wrote me about his process for realizing the abstract elements. He doesn't do the abstract part lastly, on top of the portrait, but first, then builds the portrait around it:

What I do to create the separated abstract effect is I cover up the image mostly in newspaper and tape only exposing part of the image I want with the abstract pattern/forms in. So basically I create my own abstract piece without reference to the portrait/image under the newspaper. So this gives a vitality and indelible random sensation which is what I want. I guess there is anger involved as the emotion when I create the abstract section is very violent compared to the sensitive handling of the realist part of the painting. Maybe the sharp contrast is to illustrate the fluctuation of emotion in life, as well as the minds ability to switch from obedience to ignorance in a short space of time.

His description pretty much sums it up. What fascinated me here though, is that he creates the abstract element without really knowing exactly how it’s going to integrate with the portrait. As he described it, he masks out the background (portrait area) with tape and newspaper, then makes the more painterly, non-representational swatches first. This is how the “random” element is introduced, both in concept and in process. Because he can’t know how the “abstract” portion and the realistic depiction will integrate, it must signify that the random, or “chance” element usually does violence to the “sensitively” rendered figure. It’s as if the freak nature of reality, which is always stranger than fiction, because it eclipses our imaginations, necessarily crushes the staid concept of a stable and consistent existence. At the same time, that threatening chance element also brings a kind of wild freedom into the images, bursting through the image like a blade of grass that erupts through cracks in the sidewalk. Those abstract swatches are both dangerous and liberating, waking us up from both peace and slumber.

If you happen to be in or near London between May 1st and 13th, you can go see Andrew’s paintings in person at the St. Martin in the Fields Gallery!

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Vote on your favorite of Andrew's new portraits in this poll: [link]