Artist Jay Bailey

I used to love painting figures and faces. For some reason, however, I let that part of my work fall away in lieu of more abstract and impressionistic work. But lately, I feel a change coming on. I'm at a point in my work where I'm ready to reinvestigate the human figure. I have a few portrait commissions on my plate, which I'm really enthused about, so I've been looking at the work of Lucian Freud, Gwenn Seemel, Valentin Serov and Modigliani for inspiration. I've also recently begun following the work of Dallas figure artist, Jay Bailey. His work couldn't be more different than mine. He works on paper with watercolors. His restraint and specificity is phenomenal. I love his use of line and gesture to suggest something beyond the painting. He leaves the viewer to fill in the rest of the story. His haunting portraits highlight the subject's humanness and possible disenchantment with their circumstances. His work has a lilting, dark quality that I find truly interesting.

I'm so excited because Jay is teaching a figure drawing class in Dallas at Oil & Cotton in the new year. I haven't taken a technical art class in a million years, so I signed up!