New Work! L'aigle ( Ab Antiquo )
Portraiture is an art form going back to ancient Egypt, over 5,000 years ago. Long before the camera, a painted, sculpted, or drawn portrait was the only way to record what someone looked like and document visual history. The portraits that have survived still serve to immortalize the past, just as the inscriptions bearing the names of royalty. The artist tried to express how his muse wanted to be seen and craft how history would see them.
Commissioned Portrait paintings have become rare among leading modern artists. Instead contemporary artists tend to paint themselves, their friends or lovers in whatever way they please. Digital photography is more and more common, making what was formerly an expensive luxury product affordable for just about everyone.
Portraits have far more purpose than just a means to record. They have been used to show the power, importance, nobility, beauty, wealth, taste and other qualities of the sitter.
Artist Kestin Cornwall’s new mixed-media work incorporates classic portraiture references with his new-age hybrid art image creation methods of combining hand drawing, digital image making, screen-printing, ink transfer, acrylic and aerosol painting. The mediums create a visually alien yet clam, earth like environment for his muse to live in.