Iconographer Atanas Kavrakov 1941

Dobri Dobrev's painting shows the Iconographer Atanas Kavrakov at work with paint on canvas. It’s really about how the artist uses the brush to create the image, from sketching out the figures in the background to layering in the thicker paint for the figure of the iconographer. I keep coming back to the way Kavrakov's eyebrow is cocked as he stares out at us, like he's judging our own artistic efforts, or maybe just wondering when we're going to get back to work! The way Dobrev modeled the volume of the arm, the fall of the shirt, it’s not trying to trick us into thinking it’s real, but asking us to imagine its realness. The brown and blue palette is pretty subdued, but there’s this energy in how the paint is applied, not overworked, it's all about the movement of the brush. It feels like a cousin of Lucian Freud’s portraits, especially in the way it captures this quiet intensity. Like Freud, Dobrev is interested in the vulnerability of the human form, and the messy, imperfect reality of being alive.