Today’s featured artist is Cliff Warner, an acrylic painter from the UK whose paintings are, without question, some of the most elegant and beautiful figurative pieces I’ve seen in some time.
In my mind, Cliff’s artwork combines the best of gesture drawing, abstraction, and even some minimalist tendencies (despite the expressive colors) to achieve gorgeously composed contemporary paintings of the human figure.
Just his use of line is incredible—in Dancer 2, above, I keep coming back to that outstretched arm, so perfectly outlined with the simplest of strokes.
It’s a good lesson, perhaps, for those of us who obsess over capturing the finest, most minute details in our paintings. Simplicity is often just as appealing as detail (if not more so) when used correctly.
Acrylic also seems to be a good choice of medium for Cliff’s paintings, since colorful washes abound in almost all of his work. In the painting below they provide a modern, almost geometric twist to a classic figurative pose.
Speaking of classical, did you notice the semi-classical draping of each model too?
Lest it be thought otherwise, painting cloth over a figure is generally much more difficult than not—and Cliff handles it as expertly as any Renaissance painter would.
In the end, whether you enjoy modern abstraction or classical realism, these paintings have something of both in a rather extraordinary way. If you’d like to see more of Cliff’s work, please visit his website at www.cliffwarner.co.uk.
