The Complexity of the Soul, High Realist Portrait and Figure Paintings

Richard Davis’s portraits exist in a mysterious zone between seeing and sensing. While his descriptions of the models might be grounded in realism, the intensity of Davis’s gaze, evident in his micro-detailing, unlocks a deeper portrait of his subjects. He portrays inner landscapes, terrains that might be wracked by self-doubt, anxiety and fear.

While the realist mode might seem to expose in dense detail aspects of a personality defined by expression, pose and fashion, in Davis’s hands it is a transparent gloss uncovering the complexities of a soul.