Medea 

Adrian Gottlieb’s painting, Medea, is realized with oil paint on canvas. The artist relies on a traditional understanding of the medium, mixing dry pigments with drying oil in order to achieve a variety of effects. There's a particular skill that Gottlieb uses to achieve an almost photographic rendering; the light is distributed unevenly throughout the composition, with some areas being heavily illuminated and others darkened to create shadows and highlights. This effect is achieved through a complex layering of brushstrokes; a labor-intensive approach. The painting's visual depth, combined with the unsettling subject matter, gives it a strange, captivating quality. The artist has also made use of a range of techniques – blending and layering – to capture the rich color of the protagonist's robe, the reflective surface of the blade, and the golden sheen of the character’s diadem. These materials, processes, and context provide us with an understanding of the painting’s full meaning, while also challenging traditional distinctions between fine art and craft.