36” x 30”, oil, acrylic, pumice, and polymer emulsion on canvas, 2022
The texture and scraping away of paint to reveal hints of color beneath make this painting more than a black and white depiction. A wall is never black and white even if the initial impression is so. The painting was completed as a reaction to the war in Ukraine, as well as socio-political forces, including those in the art world, related to walls and allowing entry or denying access.
Cellist And Drummer, 48” x 59.5”, oil on canvas, 2022
Detail
Detail
Detail
Detail
Detail
Detail
Portrait commissions are available. No modeling experience needed, and no need to sit for long periods of time because reference photos suffice! Contact Lucas Novak for more details.
48” x 36”, oil and acrylic on canvas, 2021
Here is an example of a figure painting completed in January, 2021. The balance between beauty, vulnerability, and mystery is a timeless feeling, like finding a wild flower beside a waterfall on a cold mountain. A quiet peacefulness with a trace of sadness. It is not something people experience every day, but it is something people remember. What I enjoyed about painting this subject was the way she crossed her arms and feet, with downcast eyes and tilted head, holding her body in a manner that suggested vulnerability or sadness. She sat naturally and gracefully as the sheet flowed over her like water or cream.
Her pose also evokes mystery because the viewer wants to see her eyes and full figure which is blocked only by the loose flowing sheet. What is hidden just as important as what is revealed. Like an enigma.
Detail of face.
Detail of hand and sheet.
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable… A quote by C.S. Lewis.
The notion of being vulnerable might sound like weakness, but knowing the vulnerabilities exist and embracing them fully makes a person strong. To be vulnerable is to be real, for even the strongest, such as tigers, are vulnerable. In the series One Hundred Years Of Solitude, my art focuses on certain themes central to our emotional and social existence and what makes us human.
The painting is not a depiction of a fantasy. The subjects can be interpreted as metaphors for the fragilities of life — maybe not actual tigers crossing our path, but rather the impediments, emptiness, imminent dangers, deaths, and waning memories, that we all, if we’re being truthful, must inevitably encounter in life, and through which we must make decisions and push forward.
Detail.
Detail.
Detail.