Big Girl Painting

Mediums: oil, canvas, wax.
Location: private collection.

In 1987, Julian Schnabel acquired several small paintings at a thrift store. One of them was a portrait of a young and pretty American who became the hero of a series of paintings by the artist. In the composition, the girl is captured close-up with eyes tied with a red ribbon. Schnabel specially painted his face so that the audience did not look into the eyes of the model but paid attention only to the painting itself. To create a series of portraits, the artist used a mixture of paint and wax – this technique gives the surface a sense of depth and colour saturation. All paintings from this series are quite large (up to three meters) and attract the viewer with their simplicity and bright colours.