Tuesday, April 15, 2008

La Mexicana


"La Mexicana" is a portrait I did a few months ago of a young Latina girl with gang tattoos. I especially like the punk hair style. This portrait has never been exhibited and I'm looking for the proper venue in which to show it. It is oil on PVC panel and I tried to use the same techniques that were used by Vermeer in his painting of the "Girl with a Pearl Earring."
Comments?? Let me know what you think....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

James, I like the hair in this painting. It is very interesting!

James Butler said...

Thanks for the comment anonymous. The models hair was blue with pink stripes in it. I wanted the painting to focus more on the gang tattoo so I painted the hair just blue. But it is very striking.

I enjoy painting portraits and would like to paint more of them. In fact, I would like to paint an entire series of portraits of people with tattoos.

Let me know what you think....

Phillip Butler said...

Just as Jan Vermeer and his "girl with a pearl earring" was a departure from his comtemporary Rembrandt's style, so is the subject of this painting a departure from mainstream women of today. Her brash individualism and expressive tattoos set her apart. She sees herself as a cut above the rest, while her contemporaries mostly see her as some kind of lower. The fact that she strongly believes in whom and what she is gains my respect.