Thursday, February 4, 2010

Ray Donley




















Among my peregrinations, I visited the Gallery Bienvenu and was able to view a show of the works from Ray Donley. It was the last days of the exhibit called :"Encounters in the Bone Garden".

Somber portraits, unframed, were lined up along the walls. The painter masters oil painting, using chiaroscuro to define the features of his models. He is getting his inspiration from the Great Masters from the XVIIth century, but created his own world with "los bien perdidos".

The expressions of his subjects are enigmatic and ambiguous. The absence of movement is noticeable in all the paintings, but frozen for eternity, they will be as relevant tomorrow as they were yesterday. They are provoking, disturbing, fascinating.
I tried to get some information related to the painter and found more of these portraits on his website. The future will tell us if he can move on or will stay in his world.

photographs copied from Ray Donley's website

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