By Andrew S. Conklin
Located in Chicago, IL
A study for a series of larger paintings based on motion capture studios, this painting combines classic technique with modern sensibility. Here the seated model leans against an antiquated iMac. Upon closer examination, the preparatory sketch lines are visible on the model's feet and her forearm. Unfinished works were first seen during the Renaissance with Masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Donatello. It became fashionable to leave works incomplete, so much so, that it became an aesthetic term 'non-finito'.
Andrew S. Conklin
Kelsey Seated, Arm with iMac
oil on panel
12h x 17w in
30.48h x 43.18w cm
ACK011
Motion Capture Paintings, Chicago
My recent painting series describes the reality of motion capture environments by showing the interplay between female athletes and male technicians. These paintings are meant to explore conventions of female representation in Western figurative art and to contrast this past practice with the contemporary imagery of that subject via computer-based image technology.
This project was instigated by a number of things: first, by my abiding interest in depicting the human form in paint, as I find its versatility in a design, its invitation to empathy, and its difficulty, to be something worth attempting to depict with success. In addition, my curiosity regarding the new ways to depict the form using electronic technology seem to challenge to the traditional methods I rely upon, and I wanted to comment on the similarities and differences between the studios of the painters and the technicians.
In this way, I aim to continue my investigation into what I see as the contrasting quality of human nature, and symbolically represent opposites such as mind and body, analog and digital, realism and idealism, terrestrial and the transcendent.
Andrew S. Conklin is a figurative painter. He holds an MFA from the Academy of Art University, and studied painting at the National Academy of Design in New York City with Harvey Dinnerstein...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Andrew S. Conklin Art
