Kenrick, Pink Dream 2020

Lanise Howard made 'Kenrick, Pink Dream' with oil paint, and it's a stunner! I see the artist layering creamy pinks with olive green and a soft violet for the portrait. It must have been tricky to get those colours so even, such a flat colour area can be difficult to control. I imagine Howard carefully building each plane of the sitter's face, mixing the colours, then remixing them and adding and subtracting. This slow push and pull, this to and fro, is what painting is all about. Notice those confident lines defining the folds of the sitter's shirt and pants. They add a hint of dynamism to what is otherwise quite a still image. The pink background makes me think of the American painter, Lois Dodd, and her beautiful use of flat color. Like Dodd, Howard isn't afraid of simplicity, and like all good painters, knows that sometimes less is more.