This *‘portaricature’, (fusion of portrait and caricature), acrylic study of a brown-haired woman is surrounded with swirling, strong yellow and red energy. Her placement on the canvas is perfect.
The wild movement in the brush strokes complements the dark circled, deep-set, green eyes that float back and forth in the subject’s yellow, mask-like face. This is typical of one of the artist’s styles. The smooth outlines of her chin and coloured lips are in distinct contrast to the brisk strokes in her apparel.
According to Goethe, (a poet and writer), yellow is a joyful colour and tenderly attractive. Add red, and yellow becomes more powerful than other colours. This painting, with the blotch of a red shade to the right of the subject’s head, confirms this.
For the subject to be so still, numbed and unsmiling, the viewer is left wondering what has occurred for her to present herself this way.
Acrylic on Masonite, date unknown. (Cleaned and framed.)
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