I once read that people who see faces in inanimate, non-portrait objects, are neurotic, and the article did not mean that endearingly. If that’s true, then children who make animal and human shapes out of clouds (so many) are neurotic. And truthfully, most artists are too. So with that, I will use this post to talk about an artists who plays with this idea in a rather beautiful way, and to tip my hat to those individuals who choose to and are able to view the world in a more fascinating way.

Jane Lafarge Hamill‘s paintings combine traditional portraiture with modern abstraction. Her works first appear as a slather of saturated, vibrant colors, enhanced by her thick application of paint. However, though appearing haphazard, the way she has manipulated the paint allows for a vague, albeit familiar, image of a human’s face to come through. Depending on how she has arranged the lines sometimes the face is in profile, sometimes face front.

What really allows for the portraits to be visualized is not in the revelation of facial features, as they are pretty blurry, but in the way the lines make up the shape of the head – the forehead, jawline, and neck specifically. While this alone makes her painting style unique, what makes her work beautiful is her use of color. Her pieces are not exceptionally large, rather they are on the smaller side, yet they instantly pop out due to the layers of applied color and the vibrancy of the palette.

What is especially contemporary about her paintings is the ambiguity of gender in the portraits. I would be interested to hear who sees what gender, if at all, in the works. It allows for individual readings. Some of the best art I’ve seen recently leaves interpretation open to the viewer rather than forcing them to see something preconceived. This ultimately fosters a deeper personal connection for the viewer to her paintings, and therefore doesn’t distance art from the mass public.

All in all Jane Lafarge Hamill’s works are complicated in technique but approachable in her romantic brushstrokes, color. Her dedication to the craft of painting has allowed her works to retain a modernist, contemporary spirit of narrowing the gap between viewer and artwork.