Original Nude Paintings

   This painting was part of my Pratt Museum solo show "Captains Plate" back in the early 1980's.  I have been very much influenced by Gustav Klimt in the use of the female form as an abstract element of design combined with flat areas of surface design.  

 Artists have always been attracted to the powerful, sensous and sexual lines of the female form. In this entire series I have stepped away from traditional design ideas and looked at those curving shapes as design elements in their own right.   

 As you can see here, the viewer at first does not easily distinguish the "subject" from the "ground". One has to find the form of the woman amid the textures and patterns of the overall painting. Although the body is painted in a representational way it is almost abstracted by this approach.

  The strokes of the pastel crayon and the low contrasting values serve the same purpose here. We see the female torso but it is not strongly defined against the background and becomes more a series of textures and patterns.

  While not exactly a "nude" painting I have combined design ideas from the above to create this one. Textures and patterns dominate the design, color is subdued to the point of abstraction. Slowly we are drawn to her sensuous mouth and bright red "Lipstick" which brings us into the figure once again.

I used the entire female form to create this somber scene. The top heavy design is anchored by the textural pattern rising from below. Our eye dances back and forth between image and abstraction to capture the overall mood of the piece.