Paul Ruiz...Amazing Portrait Artist

We had another fabulous Critique Night with our drawing group last night (I'll post pictures later). I wanted to quickly post a link to an AMAZING book by an incredible artist that our host, Bruce, shared with us. This book by Paul Ruiz is a cover to cover delight of figurative drawing and painting. You will be floored by his use of texture, different weights of paint, colors that go into the space yet others that rest on top of the surface, his incredible drawing language, and his ability to transport you to another dimension with very little detail.

Another delightful bonus. Mr. Ruiz has a fantastic Art Blog that offers timely and useful advice to all artists. I find this incredibly generous. I really admire artists who want ALL artists to achieve their full potential, and are willing to give great advice to help us all get to the level we desire. I highly encourage every artist to check out his entry on Artists in Uncertain Times.

Paul Ruiz ia an artist who is not only relevant to the art world because of his incisive and original portraiture, but because he speaks to the current situation of artists in our world.

An excerpt from an interview wth Paul Ruiz

BS: So what are the specific social implications of your art? Is there a specific message that you strive to convey to viewers?

PR: Before dedicating myself to full time practice, I spent nearly ten years working in a highly regulated, technology driven environment. I could not help but be affected by the growing extent to which our human relations and interactions are being mediated by technology. For me, being involved in the ritual and process of painting itself is a way of resisting this tendency of contemporary experience, of provoking a shift in the opposite direction - a shift from the generic, ephemeral and virtual nature of technology and media-saturated experience, to the specific, hand-crafted and material one of making and engaging in art.I aim for my work to provoke reflection on the importance of this in our lives, to affirm that art making is not merely self-indulgence. I believe it is fundamentally linked to our capacity and need for a broader aesthetic, social and cultural awareness - I believe this to be quite an instinctive human aspiration.

(This is Kristina) I love that quote!!!!