Marc Padeu
Portrait de Françoise, 2023
Painting - Acrylic on canvas
200 x 150 cm (79 x 59 in)
$ 50,000.00
Further images
In his work, Padeu plays with the interactions between candid, private everyday moments, and references to art historical masterpieces. Here, a woman with a shy, ambiguous smile gazes out from...
In his work, Padeu plays with the interactions between candid, private everyday moments, and references to art historical masterpieces. Here, a woman with a shy, ambiguous smile gazes out from this portrait painting, her body angled slightly away from the viewer, her posture somewhat tense as she sits between green foliage wearing a sumptuous red dress, the realistic draping of the fabric captured by the artist’s soft brushwork. Padeu captures a moment in a way that collapses the snapshot aesthetic with traditional portraiture, evoking a tension between the quotidian and the monumental.
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Painting from experience, Padeu uses photographs that he takes himself and in which he meticulously recreates scenes he has witnessed and wants to paint
Typically he adapts and refines these images to reflect tropes of art historical paintings in order for his final works to contain elements of both traditional painting and contemporary life
Here, the woman with a shy, ambiguous smile gazes out from this portrait painting, her body angled slightly away from the viewer, her posture somewhat tense as she reclines into the back of a leather seat, she is poised, almost regal
In this way, Padeu plays with the interactions between candid, private, everyday moments and references to art historical masterpieces and collapses the composition of a snapshot with traditional portraiture, evoking a tension between the quotidian and the monumental
The woman is surrounded by green and rust-colored foliage, a branch in the foreground giving the impression of quietly swallowing her into the garden
She wears a sumptuous red dress, the realistic draping of the fabric and its iridescent weave captured by the artist’s soft brushwork
Although Padeu invests his painted works with a surplus of texture, color and ostensible spontaneity, he establishes control over these dynamic elements by subtly integrating points of symmetry, uniformity and cohesion, seen here in the matching blue tone of the figure’s earring and painted fingernails, as well as the egg shell hue of the sky that is reflected in the shine of her hair and skin
———
Painting from experience, Padeu uses photographs that he takes himself and in which he meticulously recreates scenes he has witnessed and wants to paint
Typically he adapts and refines these images to reflect tropes of art historical paintings in order for his final works to contain elements of both traditional painting and contemporary life
Here, the woman with a shy, ambiguous smile gazes out from this portrait painting, her body angled slightly away from the viewer, her posture somewhat tense as she reclines into the back of a leather seat, she is poised, almost regal
In this way, Padeu plays with the interactions between candid, private, everyday moments and references to art historical masterpieces and collapses the composition of a snapshot with traditional portraiture, evoking a tension between the quotidian and the monumental
The woman is surrounded by green and rust-colored foliage, a branch in the foreground giving the impression of quietly swallowing her into the garden
She wears a sumptuous red dress, the realistic draping of the fabric and its iridescent weave captured by the artist’s soft brushwork
Although Padeu invests his painted works with a surplus of texture, color and ostensible spontaneity, he establishes control over these dynamic elements by subtly integrating points of symmetry, uniformity and cohesion, seen here in the matching blue tone of the figure’s earring and painted fingernails, as well as the egg shell hue of the sky that is reflected in the shine of her hair and skin