Will (1)

Comment

Comment by Jordan Mummer on April 16, 2020 at 8:46pm

Thank you Kristen!  It’s definitely a parallel interest.   For a little while (6 months or more), I’ve been wanting to have people sit for portraits.  I had them sit for about 4 hours with breaks and it really forces me to get what I can.  There is an immediacy I personally can’t get (maybe plein air landscape) and that I enjoy.  I always feel a little weird asking people, but a couple of them said yes.  So, if I do this every once in awhile, it’s a nice break between my more narrative stuff- which I’ve got some pretty large figure/narrative pieces I’ve been working on for awhile. I want them to look fresh, so doing these portraits were really nice. Again, thank you for your kind words! 

Comment by Resident Curator on April 11, 2020 at 7:01pm

Curator's Comments:

 

It was a pleasure to come across your new oil portraits on the site today.  Robust and well-constructed, each captures a familiar human presence. Will may be my favorite among the bunch with its inclusion of high chroma violet shadows within the fleshy color blocking. I also applaud the creative decision to introduce deeper reds within the subject’s face and ear- complementing the mossy green ground.  Looking again at your larger body of work on the site, I see these paintings are much more academically, or Classically derived than what I’ve come to recognize as your signature narrative style.  Perhaps it’s the singular focus on each portrait that also separates them from your freely imagined environments.  Whether this is a new direction, or a parallel one, your painterly dexterity is commendable.