Darius Stein

My primary interest in the figure was both for its strong narrative potential as well as the pure challenge of painting in a representational style despite such heavily exhausted subject matter. My challenge was not only how to paint realistically, but also how to use the figure in a fresh and interesting manner that could be accessed by as wide of an audience as possible.  

As I painted figures, I noticed that I was slowly reducing the pictorial elements within the picture plane. My paintings generally consisted of an isolated figure set within a very shallow space and a minimal ground. Essentially, I was reducing all unnecessary information from the background so as to place the majority of the viewer's focus on the psychology of the figure.