Woman in the Window

Woman in the Window makes a powerful visual impact despite its small 12 x 12-inch scale. The loosely-rendered painting is a figure study with an evident emphasis on capturing how light reflects across the woman's face. Ambient rays illuminate her distinct features - the curve along her rounded jawline and nose, the highlight on her bottom lip, her lowered eyelids atop full, thick lashes. While the face necessitates a certain level of detail to capture a true likeness, the bottom half of the painting acts as its counterbalance. Each brush stroke is just as intentional, but lighter and freer. We see more direct evidence of the artist's hand deftly dabbing and swiping across the surface. In contrast to the purple-gray hues that effortlessly blend into chocolate tones on her forehand and cheek, the artist opted for a mauve pink and warm taupe dappled along her chest to serve as highlights, which adds to the painting's overall impressionistic effect. One of the strongest aspects of this work is likely its most subtle. The subject's top identically matches the background color over her left shoulder. Her right lapel and sleeve are drafted in finer detail, slightly more visible in a cooler range of sky blues, from falling under her shadow. This delicate interplay between the background and foreground places the exploration of figure and skin in the center spotlight, giving the painting its allure and character.

i love this!!