THE NEW YOU

The New You is a single artwork, consisting of 40 oil paintings on canvas, each 24 inches wide, 20 inches high and 1.4" deep. The individual paintings are hung in a block.

Each painting is a picture of one my friends and family, more-or-less life-size, painted from life, in a single sitting of about 6 hours. (Like a very long exposure flash-photograph, but done by hand.)

I try to paint people as truthfully and plainly as possible. Any “capturing of spirit” or portrayal of emotion is purely coincidental. I simply look at the person and try to re-create my version of what I see on canvas.

Clothes, props or background are left out, allowing the representations of the sitters to be free from any societal attachments that would link them to the life of the individuals, or to our time.

The title refers to how these paintings become a "new you": A collaborative entity that exists between painter and sitter:

They are of the sitter, yet entirely made by the artist, "filtered" through his perception and the limitations of technique and material.