Works on Paper
Love My Neighbor Series
The Centrality of Authentic Character
I love to start working with the subject by studying the character in depth with drawing.
My Neighbors Series consists of a specific type of paintings, which are centered on the authenticity of a distinct character. Everything else is built around it. In fact, this is the sole key to their purpose. These kind of works rely entirely on the strong, truthful and emotional portrayal of a unique individual. Such a portrayal shall possess a specific quality of “live presence”, and this quality is much different than just photographic accuracy. Without attaining such distinct visual authenticity, there is no point of going any further. The type of painting that I had in mind for the series had to be a complete embodiment of this approach.
The strength and conviction of the character portrayal is essential to hold complex portrait work together.
Developing the dimensional understanding of the underlying forms and of the proportional underpinning to their organization was the key to achieve it. That was the purpose and the function of this drawing that I executed in three live sessions.
