This is the fourth time I have painted this exact angle and I still do not know her name. A woman reading on a stoop, seen from the side, the colour lifting off her hair and shoulders into open air. I keep the face turned away because the bloom is what I am after, not the portrait.
I work in what I call Bloom Profiles—bold contour, rich skin tones, and then the hair and the air around the figure painted loose and fast. The likeness stays private. The colour does the work.
The stoop is always flat
New York grounds do not recede in my pieces. The brownstone rail, the step, the brick—all of it sits flat and close, like a stage set pushed right up to the picture plane. It makes the figure feel near even when she is looking away.
The flatness also holds the bloom in place. If the background had depth, the brushwork would read as atmosphere. Kept flat, it reads as energy coming off the person herself.
Ruby said the colours erupt with motion and depth
She is right about the motion. I disagree about the depth.
The bloom is not trying to suggest space behind the figure—it is trying to show what it feels like to be near someone who is absorbed in something and completely still. The motion is not in the room. It is in the attention.
I use a loaded brush and pull it fast so the edges stay wet and the hues mix on the canvas, not the palette. Violets into ochres into pinks. The contour of the profile stays clean and the rest of it moves.
This is for people who like a face they cannot quite see
If you want a portrait where you know the sitter, this will frustrate you. The angle is deliberate and it does not give in.
But if you have ever watched someone read and felt that odd pull of witnessing private attention in public—the way the world goes quiet around them even on a loud street—this piece will make sense to you. It is the fourth in the series and it will not be the last.
Gallery-wrapped canvas, in 3 sizes — 12×16, 16×20, 18×24 in. Ships free within the continental US.
