Realistic Portraits and Graffiti Abstractions With Kirk Gower
October 23, 2021
Description
When: Oct 23, 2021 at 11am (1.5hr demo)
Kirk Gower will be demonstrating how to paint realistic portraits. He will be focusing on hair and how to replicate its texture and speaking about the importance of colour mixing and use of tonal variations. Kirk will demonstrate a technique that is unique to him, using thick paint. He will also be discussing how he contemplates what graffiti-like content to place over the composition.
Artist Supply List:
– Titanium White
– Burnt Umber
– Indigo
– Azo Brown
– Azo Yellow Green
– Fan 12 6600FN
– Angular Bright 12 6600AB
– Round 4 6600R-4
– Angular Bright 6 6600AB
– Flat 2 6600F
– Bright 20 6600B
Surface Type:
– Opus Black Label Canvas – Cotton & Linen Blend 16’x20′
– Opus odourless mineral spirits
Register in advance for this meeting:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Artist Bio
Kirk Gower is a visual artist based in Vancouver, BC. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University. In his practice, Kirk explores queer identity in contemporary portraiture and images. The paintings he creates often begin as sumptuous, highly rendered works of art. Using thick paint, graffiti-like content is placed over the composition resembling crayon drawings. By introducing these child-like shapes, colours, and symbols, he defaces the image and implicates new readings of his work.
Kirk is interested in the way oil paint has the ability to both seduce and repulse the viewer. He is fascinated in this push and pull and the teetering of this invisible line. Kirk uses oil paint because of its tradition in Western art history. He likes to simultaneously elevate the portraits he creates and deface them using the same material. All of this is done while bringing a queer perspective to modern portraiture.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirk.f.gower/