Original artwork description:

Expressionist oil painting mainly painted with palette knife, on a rollered slate black background.

This is the second in the "Mask" series of oil paintings.
We all wear masks in our daily lives to protect our vulnerabilities, but if if you look closely enough these vulnerabilities are always seeping out, the mask is always, sometimes imperceptibly, slipping to reveal more than we would like.

This painting is of an stage actor, looking as if they are wearing theatre paint for a performance of a play. I thought what would be a "luvvie" thing to say, then I thought "one of the great roles".
Then when painting I thought this was a woman and the greatest role she may have played, most poignantly, was motherhood.

Materials used:

oil painting on linen canvas

Tags:

#james henry johnston #oil painting #portrait #woman #painting #figurative #art #expressionist #artfinder #mask #people watching #theatre #actor