WorkArt & Culture

Artist applies and deconstructs oil on canvas to create beautiful figurative paintings

Bristol-based fine artist Carl Melegari has just released a new body of work, which continues to explore the sensuous realm of paint, skin and figuration.

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Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of the artist and Edgar Modern.

Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of the artist and Edgar Modern.

With a contemporary approach to painting, his famous methodology of deconstruction and reconstruction, through the peeling, disfiguring and re-layering of oil on canvas forms images of otherwise hidden expression.

His paintings arguably focus just as much on the medium of paint, and how it reacts with the surface, as they do on the subject of the painting. Through the veils of layers, achieved by continuously accumulating and scraping back the paint, a figure emerges as if to suggest how the sitter itself has become enveloped and partly obscured by the energy of the paint.

His work draws from sculptural influences, such as Manuel Neri as well as from colourists, such as Morandi. Melegari frequently uses a monochromatic palette to generate the idea that he is playing with the reduction of form: often abstracting and delineating parts to create a more non-figurative feel. He often uses this muted palette to replicate a sense of isolation and seclusion. He then applies paint liberally and without reserve: allowing it to drip spontaneously to both literally and symbolically mirror the personality of the sitter.

Exhibiting at the Edgar Modern gallery in Bath this October. In the meantime, watch the video below to see Carl at work or visit www.carlmelegari.co.uk to discover more.

Carl Melegari's portrait in profile with layered and scraped oil paint in muted tones, white drips flowing from the dark hair, revealing flesh tones beneath
Abstract portrait with obscured facial features created through layered, scraped and dripped oil paint in muted greys, blacks and whites by Carl Melegari
Abstract portrait with layered oil paint in dark blues and whites, with dripping paint cascading down the canvas to obscure the figure's features
Three abstracted figures with heads rendered in reddish and dark tones emerge through layers of peeling and dripping paint on a pale ground in Carl Melegari's oil on canvas work
Two portrait heads rendered in muted tones with heavy texture, created through layered, scraped and dripping oil paint that obscures and reveals facial features
Abstract portrait with dark central features emerging through layers of grey, black and muted tones, with paint dripping vertically across the canvas surface
Thickly layered oil paint in whites, blacks and muted tones with a ghostly face emerging from the textured, scraped surface of the canvas
Profile of a figure with layered black and white paint dripping down canvas, revealing abstracted facial features beneath scraped and accumulated oil paint layers
Expressive portrait of a bearded man created with layered and scraped oil paint, with dripping white paint obscuring much of the surface
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