Steve Caldwell is a UK painter whose focus is portraits, and by focus I mean rather intense focus. Caldwell’s faces are intensely observed, and rendered with a finessed attention to tone and texture. Many have a feeling of immediacy that at times can even feel a bit confrontational, a sense of “here I am, this is me, like it or not”.
Most interesting to me is that a large percentage of Caldwell’s paintings are monochrome, painted in acrylic in a full range of grays. A number of them are left in an apparently unfinished state with some areas brought to a finish and others little more than a sketched outline against a textured ground.
His work in color is no less intensely observed, with an equal degree of attention to nuanced value relationships.
I usually don’t care for the photo-realist style of work, but the unfinished aspect of these makes them much more interesting. The ability to render a subject to perfection can impress you with technique, but couple the technique with composition/design/Idea, and then you have something.
I especially like the partially finished one of the girls face. To me it says; ” I”ve been trying to find myself, and I’m finally breaking through.” It would be a hard concept to illustrate if it were given as an assignment, but this one nails it. She doesn’t look to be coming out of a fog, or water, just coming together as a finished person.
Great post! Thanks for the chance to see it.
Thanks, Sheridan.
I agree that I don’t often respond to work that I would consider “photo-realist”, but I think there are many elements in Caldwell’s work that are not characteristic of photography.
I’ve been impressed by Armin Mersmann’s work for many years, until I lost track of him; he tells us what happened, after one day Junia Doan discovered him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NykBwad5yko
I am moved to say that I find these downright creepy, and yes, that’s definitely an artistic expression.
Bill