Portraits on Canvas
Selected Works
Face with Yellow
60″ X 48″ Acrylic on Canvas
My portraits seem as if they are phasing in and out of existence. I wait until a personality shows and the painting vibrates with its own life.
There are always surprises in my work. I respond to them as best I can.
Portrait with Red
60″ X 40″ Acrylic on Canvas
Face With Ochre
56.5″ X 44″ Acrylic on Canvas
They are visitors whom I welcome to my life for as long as they wish to stay.
Portrait with Red III
53″ X 45″ Acrylic on Canvas
Head With Blue Face
66″ X 46″ Acrylic on Canvas
Portrait with Blue
60″ X 36″ Acrylic on Canvas
Girl with Orange Hair II
60″ X 48″ Acrylic on Canvas
Most of my work never makes it to the finish line. Sometimes I have 4 or 5 faces in the same painting.
Face With Ochre III
83″ X 60″ Acrylic on Canvas
Girl With Gray II
60″ X 40″ Acrylic on Canvas
Face With Black 10
40″ X 40″ Acrylic on Canvas
Face With Black 9
40″ X 40″ Acrylic on Canvas
Seated Figure with Red
60″ X 40″ Acrylic on Canvas
Charlotte
61″ X 51″ Acrylic on Canvas
Milo
56″ X 44″ Acrylic on Canvas
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
