Portrait #6 2022

Adam Caldwell's Portrait #6 is a painting made with oil on canvas. The artist builds up layers of paint in a careful way, capturing the appearance of a woman in an intimate moment. The nature of oil paint lends itself to smooth transitions and blending. Caldwell uses this technique to create realistic skin tones and soft shadows, giving the woman a lifelike presence. The way he applies the paint has a significance of its own: look at the more gestural mark-making, like the sketch of hands with a bright red thread and the drips toward the bottom of the composition. The overlaying of careful, laboured realism with quick gestural strokes brings the social context into consideration. The painting may reflect the tension between the idealized image of women and the reality of labor and domestic work. Caldwell's choice of materials and his mark making can be interpreted as a commentary on the amount of work that goes into the production of a perfect image. By examining materials and processes, we gain insights into the making of the artwork and its connection to wider social issues of labor, politics, and consumption.