Jeffrey Luque’s Girl with Flowers series combines realist portraiture with extravagant detail.
A: You work primarily in paint, filling compositions with detail and natural forms. Why are you interested in this type of detailed style?
JL: I don’t know know why I do what I do. I enjoy painting as it is a way of getting lost from the world.
A: How did you develop this style and who is your biggest influence?
JL: As a self-taught artist, my style reflects the progression of self learning and understanding of how I instinctively place paint on the canvas.
A: How do you choose your subject matter?
JL: My subject matter is very varied and spontaneous, especially in my current series, in which it seemed to come together at the right time and the right moment.
A: Your Girl with Flowers series is perhaps reminiscent of Dutch Golden Age Painting, combining elements of vanitas, colour and composition. Where do you get your inspiration from and what is the concept behind this series?
JL: Music is one of my biggest sources of inspiration; it helps me to lose myself, becoming enveloped by the process. As with this series, each piece starts out structured and defined, I then develop it in a way so that the colours become alienated to me. I then start to add more and more instinctive shapes until the image comes together as something that I’m happy with. I fill the space with more and more information that intertwines with everything already existing on the canvas.
As the viewer looks upon the larger than life portrait from a distance, they see a figure deep in thought. The flowers and the metal leafing accentuate the subject, putting emphasis on how we pre-judge or perceive what is around us. As the viewer walks closer and closer to the painting they see more intricate details, pulling them right up to the canvas. Conceptually, this invites audiences to think about what and how we see on a deeper level.
A: The series is currently exhibiting at CoRK Arts District in Jacksonville. What has this experience taught you about the wider arts world and audience interaction?
JL: The opening for my series is on 19 May, 17:00 – 21:00. I will be doing a free raffle for one of my floral paintings for everyone that comes the opening and / or the closing. I wouldn’t say that I have learned anything further from the wider arts world, as I have a day job which is a mechanism to pay for my artwork. As to how the audience will interact to the series displayed in its entirety, I will find out next month.
See more of Luque’s work on Facebook and Instagram.
Credits:
1. Girl with Flowers #6. Oil on canvas, 183cm × 147cm.
