Art, Identity, and the Human Experience
3 min readTable of Contents
Go driving the scenes with Omar Lawson, an remarkable new expertise whose unique tactic to portraiture is capturing the artwork world’s focus.
The first issue you see about Omar Lawson’s artwork is the grand scale. At 6 feet tall, his portraits have a body weight and existence all their own.
But it swiftly results in being clear that Lawson’s portraits are not only everyday living-sized they are much larger than lifestyle. His daring use of color and dynamic composition transports the viewer from an art gallery into a shared human working experience. Lawson’s portraits at the same time capture an individual’s one of a kind id and the universal human expertise.
Q&A with Omar Lawson
In this quick Q&A, we share a glimpse into Omar Lawson’s perform and tactic to portraiture. To just take a deeper dive, check out the recording of our recent Illuminate function, the place we peeked within Lawson’s studio and talked about his lifestyle, art, and doing work solutions.
Q: What do you obtain most powerful about painting portraits?
Generating a little something that a lot of persons can establish with—while also being aware of there’s an specific out there who perceives my development as a representation of their identity—is unbelievably fulfilling. While portraiture headlines my paintings, the concentration is generally on the collective narrative.
Q: You paint with oils, acrylics, and collaged factors. What are the rewards and challenges of each medium and how do you make your mind up which to use for a portray?
The rationale I work in blended media is so that I can skip more than all the issues and shortcomings of just about every medium and genuinely play to their strengths. I exclusively paint the pores and skin and hair with oils simply because the slow dry time permits me to really outline the physical characteristics of my styles which is essential to portraying their identities as persons. On the other hand, the mediums that I applied to make the apparel and spaces that my figures occupy are preferred the minute that I determine to perform on them.
Each choice informs the up coming and even however doing the job this way can make every painting really feel like a visible check, it’s my way of partaking with the get the job done and continuing to increase my conclusion creating skills.
Q: What is some thing new you are seeking to investigate in your artwork?
I’ve started to integrate perforated or “dotted” strains into my do the job. These are generally made use of in early childhood instruction to teach children how to publish letters and symbols that they will carry on to use all over their education and learning and day to day life.
I prepare to use the perforated line in my do the job as a car or truck for my commentary on the instruction that we acquire outdoors of the university program in just ideas these kinds of as culture, societal norms, and nuanced ordeals.
For more from Omar Lawson, view a replay of Creating Artwork That Sparks Discussion, an on the net occasion solely for Artists Community customers.
Go through more about Omar Lawson’s Liquitex artist residency or observe him on TikTok.
