Haze By Jean-Luc Almond

Jean-Luc Almond
Haze
Original Contemporary Oil Painting
Oil painting on Wood
45 x 35cm

This portrait was initially inspired by a black and white photo of American film actress Joan Bennet. However rather than painting a likeness, I was more interested in creating an ambiguity as the face emerges from shadow, unveiling a presence of someone without revealing everything. I used impasto colours to create the effect of paint hovering over the the face, as if in flux, abstracting and blurring it to some degree. Combining colour with darkness, the brighter impasto textures provide a contrast to the muted black brown tones of the background, that is more reminiscent of old photography/film and classical art. I was interested in combining elements of abstraction with representation to create an image that feels more visually alive and emotive. The psychological intrigues me more than likeness and the abstraction evokes emotions. Working in layers, there is also evidence of a history of former paintings beneath which is I find symbolic of the subject matter.

This work is painted on a primed wooden panel and is fully supported on the reverse with a solid wood cradle so that it hangs flush against thee wall.

Size: H:45 cm x W:35 cm

Jean-Luc Almond, painter, is available for sale online and in our art gallery at Wychwood Art. Jean-Luc Almond is an emerging British artist who received his BFA in 2013 from the City Guilds of London Art School. His paintings have won various awards, including the winner of The Cass Art Commission of the National Open Art Competition, Somerset House (2014) and The Best Painting Prize at the ‘Injustice’ Open Art Competition, La Galleria, Pall Mall, 2014, judged by esteemed art critic, Edward Lucie Smith. In 2015 he was featured as a Saatchi Art One to Watch and in the Best of 2015 and Emerging Artists to Buy Now Collections on Saatchi Art's homepage. His work is exhibited internationally. Notable exhibitions include Start Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, 2017, SCOPE Basel, Switzerland, June 2017 and The London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, January 2019. Among Jean-Luc’s influences is Victorian photography. His paintings are constructed through the processes of creation and destruction, damage and repair. Jean-Luc is obsessed with the materiality and texture of the paint itself. He embraces the transformations that take place when he is no longer a slave to the image and the painting becomes more about the paint and the surface. A certain tension exists within the thick surfaces of his paintings, as paint takes precedence over representation. To discuss any of Jean-Luc Almond's original paintings for sale please call 07799535765 or email deborah@wychwoodart.com