DeBlácus

About the artist

I'm a self-taught painter and drawer working in oil, charcoal, pastel and pencil from County Carlow, Ireland. My focus is figurative work and portraiture — faces, gestures, and the small, specific moments where expression gives away what someone is thinking or feeling.

I didn't come to this through formal training. What I know, I've built up through years of looking closely and working directly from life: the way light sits on skin, the weight of a hand, the half-second before an expression settles. I'm drawn to images that hold a bit of wonder or inquisition in them — pieces that ask a question rather than answer one.

Each piece starts the same way regardless of medium: close observation, then a slow build of tone and form until something true about the subject comes through. I take on portrait commissions and welcome enquiries about original work.