Ray Donley "Figure with a Knife" - Oil on Linen

"My paintings extend many of the ides of portraiture and psychological exploration first articulated by the Renaissance and Baroque masters. The power of the imagery and the audacity of the technique demonstrated in much Baroque portraiture, for example, have fascinated me since my days as a graduate student of Dutch and Spanish 17th century art. But rather than create anachronisms for their own sake, I choose to use such imagery and technique as a point of departure for exploring a world that is idiosyncratic, personal, and capable of transcending time and place. And whereas much of the portraiture of the Renaissance and Baroque sought to reveal something of the state of mind of the subject, there is an aspect of my work that seeks to turn this idea around by presenting a kind of imagery that, instead, reveals something about the state of mind of the viewer."

Gallery Bienvenu - Have invoice from sale.

Ray Donley
"Figure with a Knife"
2006
Oil on Linen
32" x 32"