Lauren Cherry - Miniature Portraits

Miniature Portraits - oil on board

"These self portraits are from an ongoing investigation that evokes the opening of a vast internal space. Like Alice in Wonderland, traveling through a small hole to discover something so big, by concentrating the information in miniature, it magnifies an interior space that is my world within.

Often the works are stimulated by the exploration of painting technique: mixing colors to find flesh tones, the excitement of color relationships, the quality of pigments, the light, shape of form, and compositional concerns. The quality of a figure contained, yet exhibiting a monumental feeling... concerns that painters have always had.

In the exploration of technique, the paintings themselves lead me in surprising directions. The paintings are done of a moment, sometimes personal things are revealed in the process; gestures that I wasn't aware of.
I begin to understand myself as younger and older; feminine and masculine; my relationship to 'family'.

I began with the objective to 'capture' personality, or perhaps what appears on the surface. It became evident that this was impossible. In my acute observations of my face, unexpectedly, aspects of unknown ancestors appear. Each conjures up its own history, healing the wounds of love.

By looking intimately, I discover my self.
It is my past that reveals the present.
The secrets to my life, lie within."
Lauren Cherry