Introducing Daniel MAY... 

​

The goal of any portrait is to capture the essence of someone, a representation of a moment in time.  It might only be a fleeting moment, an expression which reminds you of them, and portrays who they were.  We change in such subtle ways, barely noticeable to those we know.  Only in hindsight do we know who we were at that time, now gone.  A good portrait is more than just structure and light, it is emotion and personality, caught in this transience.  A good portrait does more than look like a person, it feels like a person.  And sometimes how someone feels is subjective to the artist, in this the artist reveals the subject as who they perceive.

​

I find light a fascinating thing to capture.  It is at the core of what an artist does.  I admire how the impressionists focussed on the depiction of the transience of light in their works.  In portraiture, it offers a way of understanding colouration and facial contour.  With such a limited colour palette in their repertoire, a pastel artist must choose to be bold and use pure pigment, or undertake the more laborious task of blending and overlaying to create a more accurate play of light.  I find that a combination of the two techniques can create a realistic depiction which still reveals the process of the artist in the work.

​

Commissioned orders welcome via email: danielbrentmay@gmail.com

​

MAP : 6/45 Rowlins Road, Gerringong