A Personal Exploration of Human Character, Expressive Painting, and Artistic Identity
Every Face Tells a Different Story
Every human being carries a unique world of emotions, experiences, memories, and personality traits. Even when two people look remarkably similar, their identities, ways of thinking, expressions, and inner worlds can be entirely different. Every face holds a story shaped by a #lifetime of experiences. Sometimes, fragments of that story become visible through facial lines, the expression of the eyes, the way someone smiles, or even the silence of their expression.
For me, portrait #painting is much more than reproducing someone's physical appearance. A face is a starting point for exploring identity, something that extends far beyond physical characteristics. What attracts my attention is not necessarily conventional beauty or the proportions of facial features. Sometimes, it is a particular difference, a complexity, or even a contradiction in someone's personality.
Some faces appear calm, yet their eyes reveal a certain restlessness. Others may look serious, while carrying an unexpected sense of humor and energy beneath that appearance.
Perhaps one of the reasons I continue to be fascinated by portraiture is this endless diversity of human personalities. Every face offers a new opportunity to look at people, their emotions, and the differences that make each individual unique.
Portrait Commissions: Meeting Different Personalities
Throughout my #artistic career, I have received various portrait commissions. Some initially seemed quite straightforward: someone would send me a photograph of themselves or a loved one and ask me to turn it into a painting. However, through these experiences, I gradually realized that behind almost every commission, there is a personal story and sometimes a particularly interesting personality.
Some people want to preserve an image of themselves. Others want to keep a portrait of a family member or someone dear to them. There are also those who are looking for something different from the images they see every day in photographs or mirrors.
I have encountered many different tastes, expectations, and personalities through these commissions. For some people, physical details are extremely important. They want everything to remain as close to the reference photograph as possible. Others give me much more freedom and prefer to see my own interpretation of their face rather than a strictly realistic reproduction.
I find these differences fascinating. Sometimes, the choice of photograph, the explanations people give about themselves, or the particular features they emphasize reveal interesting aspects of their personalities.
I believe a #portrait commission is more than a transaction between an artist and a client. It is a kind of human connection in which one person shares a part of their identity with the artist, while the artist attempts to reinterpret it through their own visual language.
Of course, the final result does not always have to match the client's initial expectations perfectly. Sometimes, the artistic value of a portrait lies precisely in the differences between the original photograph and the painter's personal interpretation.
Expressive Color, Yellow, and the Physicality of Paint
In this painting, I have tried to move beyond the naturalistic representation of skin tones and use color as a means of expressing personality and creating visual energy.
My approach in this work is closely connected to Expressionism. In #expressive painting, color, line, and brushwork are not simply tools for describing reality. They can communicate emotions, tensions, and the artist's personal interpretation of the subject.
For this reason, skin does not necessarily have to resemble its natural color, and facial features do not always need to follow the rules of conventional drawing.
Yellow plays a particularly important role in this painting. For me, yellow is not simply a bright color or a means of creating contrast. It has an extraordinary capacity to convey energy, intensity, and visual presence.
Large areas of the face are constructed using different shades of yellow, golden tones, and ochre. Together, these colors create volume while transforming the face beyond its conventional natural appearance.
In some areas, yellow has been applied directly with broad, energetic brushstrokes. In others, it has been combined with brown, orange, and darker tones to create depth and contrast.
Against the dominance of these warm colors, I have introduced blue and deep blue tones in the clothing and other parts of the composition. Blue provides a visual balance and prevents the warmth of yellow from overwhelming the entire painting. Small areas of green and turquoise also contribute to a more complex and vibrant color relationship.
Another aspect I particularly enjoy in this work is the use of thick, substantial paint application. Rather than covering the surface with thin, uniform layers, I have allowed the physical presence of the paint to remain visible. In many areas, the thickness of the paint and the movement of the brush are clearly noticeable.
This approach gives the painting a tangible, almost physical quality. It is as though the paint itself becomes part of the subject rather than merely a material used to construct the image.
For me, brushstrokes are an essential part of a painting's identity. I want the viewer to sense the physical presence of the painter: the movements, pauses, changes of direction, and even the spontaneous decisions made during the process.
Finding a Personal Visual Language
One of my most important concerns throughout my artistic journey has been developing a personal way of expressing myself through painting.
Learning techniques, understanding art history, studying the works of great artists, and practicing continuously are all essential parts of an artist's development. However, I do not believe these things alone are enough to establish an independent artistic identity.
Gradually, an artist needs to learn how to move beyond what they have learned and transform that knowledge into a means of expressing their own perspective.
Studying the works of both historical and contemporary painters is important to me, but my intention has never been simply to reproduce their approaches. Every artist can learn from the experiences of others without feeling the need to make their work resemble someone else's.
I believe finding a personal visual language is not a sudden achievement. It develops through experience, mistakes, experimentation with colors, changes in working methods, and sometimes abandoning familiar habits.
Occasionally, we need to allow a painting to develop in an unexpected direction and accept a result that we could not have imagined at the beginning.
In my recent paintings, I have become increasingly interested in the expressive potential of color, the movement of the brush, and the physical qualities of the painted surface. I want color to become more than a tool for constructing form. I want it to carry emotion, energy, and the personality of the #painting itself.
This portrait is another part of that ongoing exploration: an attempt to move away from purely realistic representation and approach an image in which human character is reinterpreted through color, texture, #brushwork and visual contrasts.
Ultimately, portrait painting gives me an opportunity to encounter people again and again. No two individuals are exactly alike, and every person carries a different world within them.
Perhaps this is the most fascinating part of the journey: even after years of painting, every new face can still offer something unexpected to discover.
This painting is an attempt to capture not merely a face, but a personal interpretation of human identity, presence, and complexity. This time, that interpretation has taken shape through yellow, blue, warm colors, and expressive, energetic brushstrokes.
Hossein Rishehri