Portraits on Paper
Selected Works
Girl with Orange II
23″ X 19″ Acrylic on Cardboard
I like to use a reduced palette for my portraits on paper. They are almost drawn more than painted.
I love the immediacy of paper and the way the brush moves across it.
Face With Ochre VI
30″ X 22.5″ Acrylic & Collage on Paper
Face with Orange III
24″ X 20″ Acrylic & Collage on Paper
I am compelled to create images that defy the transience of media.
Girl with Orange
43.75″ X 30″ Acrylic on Paper
Girl with Gray
40″ X 30″ Acrylic on Paper
Girl in Blue Chair
50″ X 38″ Acrylic on Paper
Natasha
40″ X 30″ Acrylic on Paper
My portraits are less about my ideas and more about the faces who come to me, asking to be made visible.
Portraits by James Koskinas
Faces are one of my primary subjects, part of my quest to know the human condition. I attempt to paint as automatically as possible, intending to bring forth elements of my unconscious. I add layers of paint until the original painting has been covered over many times, working rapidly. Influenced by Native American mythology, I see the role of artist as akin to shaman, trusting my instincts and freeing the portrait from the customary restraints that painting imposes.
I like building faces and then watching them go wild. I like to bring them back and reassemble them in some order. I like to collect the scattered pieces and fragments of a nose here, an eye, a mouth and the reassembly is not always realistic. On the contrary, the usual order I start out with changes continually, finally revealing a personality or essence I am looking for. Then I know the painting is done.
-James Koskinas
