Christo Anto Francis | Canada
My work currently and for the past few years tries to capture special moments when time is slowed down as I look at people. Reality slowly seeps away as I look at the subject and project it in a state of stillness. I try to capture an emotion before it’s darted away while still maintaining its complexity. The glances are usually direct and up-close and try to see beauty, simplicity, elegance, eccentricity and naughtiness in it. It’s part of an ongoing series which delves into this idea further.
Inspired by the likes of William Adolphe Bouguereau, John Singer Sargent, Ivan Kramskoi, Jon Whitcomb and many others, I strive to capture faces and the complexities that come with it. I analyze and aim to put down what I perceive from people on face value and sometimes even deeper. I choose the people I create because I feel that they have something to show or say without saying anything while being different from each other. They are painted the way they are because I try to investigate the portraits of having immense emotions and a simplistic excess. If anything, it’s a projection of how I look at people and finding them interesting within a few minutes. Sometimes, some moments are so fleeting that it’s impossible to not feel sorry for not having captured it. I paint the imaginary person who is real and vice versa. The portraits are playful, cheeky, innocent and many more; a cornucopia of human emotions. In some respects, it’s the human interaction which is shown in the portrait. The interaction between the portraits and the audience is what makes it interesting. My works are occasionally mixed media; switching from traditional oil painting to digital and vice versa. It gives me the freedom to expand and contract to the painting at hand. While I do jump around in terms of materials, my methodology remains consistent.
Woman at the Train Station
Sometimes I Feel
I Don't Think So
At The Fair
Lucky You
