Marcos Ana 2015

Alejandro Cabeza made this small oil painting, Marcos Ana, whose date is unconfirmed, but looks recent, and it's just packed with the kind of casual intensity I love in portraiture. There's a real push-pull happening here with the paint. Look at the way the background almost seems to want to merge with the figure, like they're both caught in the same atmospheric soup. The skin tones are built up with such tender daubs of color, fleshy pinks and browns, punctuated by these almost cartoonish white highlights that give it this quirky, slightly off-kilter vibe. The brushstrokes are loose, but deliberate, especially around the eyes. You can see the artist really digging in there, trying to capture something essential about the person. It reminds me a little of Alice Neel, that same willingness to let a painting be awkward and unresolved, to let the process be visible, rather than aiming for some kind of slick perfection. It's a testament to the idea that painting is always a conversation, always a negotiation between the artist, the subject, and the material itself.