Portraite of Robert Mitchum 2018

Here we have Zani Corrado’s “Portrait of Robert Mitchum” painted in oil on a 50 x 50 cm canvas. Imagine Corrado’s process, a dance of observation and interpretation where each brushstroke, with its ochres, blacks, and whites, captures not just Mitchum’s likeness but something deeper, more elusive. The paint looks fairly thin. A deliberate choice, maybe, to allow the canvas to breathe, to keep the image alive. Look at the way the shadows play across his face—each stroke feels like an attempt to get at something true, something beyond the surface. I feel like Corrado is trying to do what Fairfield Porter did, but with a kind of grit. It's like she's painting a memory, not just a portrait, and it’s all in the subtle shades and confident strokes. You sense Corrado wrestling with how to best get at it, just like every artist, and in that struggle, the painting finds its voice, its meaning.