Portrait of Elmer Bischoff 1958

David Park made this Portrait of Elmer Bischoff with oil on canvas, and what strikes me is the way he's built up the face with these confident, almost chunky strokes. It's like he's not just painting a face, but constructing it, brick by brick. The color palette is interesting – those greens and blues mixing with the warmer reds and browns. It’s a fleshy, earthy mix, giving the portrait a real sense of weight and presence. Looking closer, you can see how Park uses the texture of the paint itself to define the features. The nose, for example, is almost sculpted out of thick daubs of pigment. You know, looking at this, I can't help but think of Fairfield Porter, another artist who was interested in capturing the everyday, but with a similar kind of painterly approach. For me, this portrait is a reminder that art is always a conversation, and that there's always more than one way to see.