Elizabeth Peyton

I share Peyton's interest in portraiture. Although she generally works on a small scale, Peyton is able to capture closely rendered depictions of her subjects. She makes a clear effort to make her subjects recognizable to the viewer, but does not resort to photo realism. She leaves her brush strokes visible and allows the paint to take some control with drip marks and layering as seen in her image of Kurt Cobain, 1995. In a number of Peyton's images there appears to be some emphasis on the eyes, something which I have been enthralled with for most of my painting career. Even with loose and expressive brush strokes, the eyes still pop as a reminder that the subject is or was alive at some time. 

Peyton includes, in some of her piece, rather distinct background scenery, such as in her image of John Lennon above. I, however, have not incorporated this aspect into my work. I am still undecided as to whether this is something that would strengthen or detract from my work.

Artist Analysis

Francis Bacon

Similar to some of my recent work, Bacon shows interest in distorting the figure from any sense of photo realism. It appears as though, at times, he is focused on the viewers ability to recognize the figure, but uses mark making to alter the viewers experience with the piece. His use of his subjects excruciating facial features, for example in "Head VI" 1949, shown above, which has incredible strength standing alone without any explanation. This effect is accentuated further by the additional atmospheric brush strokes. I am highly interested in Bacon's ability to represent emotion through such distorted figures. As I continue working this semester, I too, am experimenting with streaking the negative canvas space with erratic mark making and the use of drips. 

I do greatly enjoy and admire some of Bacon's more heavily distorted faces, such as his "Three Studies of Henrietta Moraes," 1969,  however, I am not interested in this process as an avenue for myself at this point. My work is gestural, but I do want to hold on to a more realistic portrayal of the figure. As with Bacon's work, I am not interested in distinct photo realism, but I do want my figures to be recognizable. 

Proposal and in progress work.

            The underlying theme or basis for my project is the subject matter of my father. I plan on portraying my father’s face, whether prominent or subtle. I then want to capture each emotion I feel towards or opinions I have of my father. In addition to symbolism of various types, I intend to use the application of non-traditional colors (i.e. a face would not be painted in flesh tones, but perhaps red and purple or blue and yellow.) The color will help me set the mood of a piece according to what characteristic or emotion I want to evoke. My father does not share much of himself with me, leaving much of his life a mystery. I imagine my father to have many past lives. I currently see him living the life inside his head that is controlled by his chronic depression, and the monotonous active life he carries out on a daily bases, doing the dishes, yard-work, or maintaining the cars and house. I have chosen and begun to research symbolism such as those related to immortality or agelessness: the fungus of longevity, the Amaranth flower and color, oak/acorn, etc. Thus far the nightingale bird, another symbol of immortality, has sparked my interest most prominently. I have envisioned an image combining the face of my father intertwined with that of a nightingale bird. I want to continue looking into mythology and historical writings to find more on symbols of mystery, depression, and wisdom. I do not want my images to be saddening, but beautifully curious. Rather, I want the viewer to feel calm looking at the piece, but wonder whom the face belongs to and how the symbolism is connected. I intend to use acrylic paint on canvas. A variety of brushes and palette knives will allow me to make visibly different brush strokes and layered paint.