richard huntington

Faces and Narratives

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                                     Anxious Woman With Gray Squares, acrylic and collage, 2020
Lately I have, for not particular reason, been doing a lot of faces. I think I became enamored with the isolated face when, a couple years back, I did a raft of quick ink drawings based on the comic-page character Jiggs. These were freely brushed efforts that ignored features and their distinctive shapes. A snarl of a line, a blot, a spin of pigment could make up a face. You didn't need much: a few dots, an arc and dash or two and the brain finds a face.
This led to monoprints of characters that seemed to demand a narrative swinging vaguely around them. They got names -- Small Louie, Mister Diggs -- and then when the women arrived the characters took on more specific role like smokers or in a couple of cases "molls' with smoking guns. 
Man Fantasizing About Balthus' 'Alice,' acrylic and collage, 2020
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LEFT: Bust of Ricardo, oil on canvas, 2019
Jiggs, oil on canvas, 2018
The 'Jiggs" theme led to numerous drawings and a handful of big-sheet monoprints in variations on Jiggs' visage. Always present is the  cigar, wafting its smoke into the air, the ill-fitting hat, and the vest and tie.
                            Mister Diggs, ink, 2019
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Left: Mammary Thoughts, sketchbook drawing, 2020 
The 'molls" may not be that nice but they do exert an independence, be it in their smoking habits or their  utter disdain for others who happen to be in  their purvey. 
Smoking Woman With Potted Plant, acrylic, 2020
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Moll With Smoking Gun and Fruit Bowl, acrylic on canvas, 2020
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 Christ, acrylic over archival pigment print, 2018
                               Bust of Ricardo, acrylic, 2019
                             Moll With Smoking Gun and Dresser, acrylic, 2020
Listening To Bouguereau's Angles, acrylic and collage on paper, 2020
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End Of Civilization As We Know It 8, acrylic and collage on paper, 2020