Jerome Witkin

Jerome Witkin is an American figure artist and his paintings usually deal with culture and politics.  His works seem to have a narrative which I like because he deals with serious issues such as AIDS, the holocaust, nuclear weapons, and more. His style is somewhat "sketchy" and this gives it a free handed look.  I like how much motion he conveys with his strokes.  I believe one of his paintings is in the Palmer Museum as well.

Margherita Manzelli

This artist is definitely interesting.  She is a contemporary artist with a distinct style.  When I first googled her artwork, I was a little creeped out.  Most of the images I saw were of one subject staring straight at the viewer.  The faces are so eery and I cannot pinpoint why.  She portrays this woman (who looks much like her but she claims them not to be self portraits) as emaciated in empty spaces.  They are portrayed in a vulnerable and awkward fashion but yet stare straight at you with confidence.  Its very disturbing.  The drained colors add to this effect.

Thomas Eakins

I chose to evaluate Eakins' figure paintings because after first googling him, I saw all the emotion in his work.  It really drew me in right away, and I really appreciate when an artist has that power.  Thomas Eakins was an American realist painter, photographer, and sculptor of the modern era.  He like me, was from Philadelphia area.  Eakins uses a lot of darker earthy tones in his paintings.  His lighting is dramatic usually cast from one angle.  I believe this definitely adds to the emotion that it conveys.  His figures are so realistic and proportional.  They seem as if they are just frozen in time.  One of my favorites of his is a painting of a child playing with blocks.  The baby's face is so round that it makes me want to squeeze his/her cheeks!  After reading about him, this baby was probably his own or a friends because his subjects were usually people he knew.

Steve Hanks

I chose the artist Steve Hanks to create a response post about because I had not heard the name before and was curious.  The images I found were very interesting and consistent.  He uses watercolor which was shocking with the amount of detail and preciseness that his works entail.  Hanks paintings usually consist of female figures either in the bedroom or by a reflection of some sort like a pond or the ocean.  Hanks grew up by the ocean and seems to take that into account for much of his artwork.
I read that Hanks calls his work emotional realism which I love.  It describes his paintings perfectly because it makes you feel as if there is a story to be told by each scene he creates.  Hanks stated hat he would not be at the skill level he is today if he had not spent so much time drawing.  I take a lot of inspiration from this because I have mostly gone straight to painting without an extensive drawing past.
I love the colors Hanks uses.  These colors are earthy with hints of pastel.  The images are so warm and inviting.  They are so realistic and incredibly impressive as I stated earlier because of the medium.  One of my favorite aspects of Steve Hanks' paintings is how he usually leaves the faces of the subjects a semi mystery.  It leaves me guessing to what they look like head on or maybe what their expression would reveal.  Hanks uses his wife and children as models for some of his paintings.  I can tell he really cares about them by the way they are depicted and it shows he wants to remember those moments forever.