Morgan O'Donnell

Morgan O'Donnell
BFA in Art Education, Painting

The Color Within
2020
Oil paint on Masonite board
24" x 36"

It’s a thought-provoking experience to take something as common as the human face and to try and pull that apart into something new.

My paintings break the face into abstracted facets driven by shifts in value and hue. These pieces crop the face imposing a miniaturing feeling on the viewer and bringing a focus into the individual planes that construct the image rather than only seeing the representation of the face itself.

My paintings are compelled by color, looking at the face more abstractly I’m interested in the numerous color notes that build up the face. Concentrating on color I emphasize value and hue to push and pull the different planes I’ve created on the face to generate an interesting and dynamic composition. Along with the separation in shape, size, value, and hue, I also have begun separating these parts by texture and application. In areas that sit back on the face the paint is applied thinner and smoother with a brush while the areas coming forward are done in more of an impasto style using a pallet knife.

I intend for my work to demonstrate all the beauty that can be found within the face by exaggerating the color and breaking the face into separate shapes. In this abstraction I hope for the viewer to become lost in the individual parts of the painting and their interaction with another to construct the face and the beauty that can be found in the smaller components rather than focusing on the outright representation of a face.