faces

2012-2022

This collection of works is a collaboration because the subject is present ;) The subject, is around me, the immigrante. It is people who show up in my life and really have supported me by sitting for me and letting me paint them.

I am grateful to them, for these moments.

Painting faces is an on-going study in free-style painting within the frame of portraiture. My approach is time-sensitive and emotional. I want to perch a passing moment with another person, onto a medium-small format surface. 

Working like this, has allowed me to act as directly from perception as possible: I lay down material as I work wet on wet, I am able to get closer to paint via color, random color, felt color. I look to get closer to paint via the velocity inherent to my brushstroke.  I usually start out with a luminous fluorescent underpainting and I sway away from planning. I avoid preparatory drawing , which can be controlling. 

Paintings are like a rehearsal where mistakes are encouraged, or like temper-tantrums where a simple, yet strident color combination is welcome. It is a space for newness, like a flavorful tension of aim, chance and paint. 

©pilita garcia 2023