Almost a Lady, romance paperback cover c. 1996

Robert Maguire painted this romance paperback cover, Almost a Lady, using what looks like pretty standard oil paint. Look at the way he's built up the snow in the background, swirling blues and whites, so painterly it's almost abstract. The texture is everything here. Maguire isn't trying to hide his brushstrokes; he's embracing them. You can almost feel the push and pull of the brush as he worked, a real physical record of his process. It is a world away from, say, Gerhard Richter who scrapes and obscures his surfaces. Take a look at the woman's dress, how the brown almost drips into the gold. That little detail makes the whole piece feel alive, like a frozen moment in a much bigger story. Someone like Lisa Yuskavage, who plays with similar themes of romance and irony, comes to mind. Art is always in dialogue, right?