Threshold

Painted in Bali on the cusp of departure, it reads as an intimate act of self-holding—tenderness tempered by resolve.

A figure in profile gathers her hands at the throat and shoulder. Flesh is modeled not with local color but with prismatic teals and corals, while the forearms remain lightly drawn, open to process. Between contemporary figurative realism and expressionism, the work echoes Schiele’s charged hand language and Klimt’s isolating grounds, yet speaks in a quieter, restorative register. Painted in Bali on the cusp of departure, it reads as an intimate act of self-holding—tenderness tempered by resolve.

Year: 2023
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 50×80 cm (20×32 in)

Composed against a soft, uninflected field, the figure turns inward, eyes closed, as temperature shifts—cool blues against amber warms—sculpt the body. The satin blending and selective hard edges create a skin of light; glazing and “lost-and-found” contours let the form breathe. Elongated fingers introduce a Mannerist grace, while the non-literal palette nods to Fauvism and Symbolist interiority. The unfinished passages are not omission but thesis: healing as a state of becoming. Made just before leaving Bali, the painting holds the tension of threshold—self-soothing, containment, and the poised calm that precedes change.

Painting Style

Contemporary figurative realism organized by temperature rather than local color. Luminous, near-flat ground; edge orchestration that keeps air between planes; thresholds staged as ethical structures rather than effects.

Brushwork

Thin, translucent passages with small flares at cheek and lip; softened seams where the opening occurs; highlights skim like breath along ridge points.

Kinship & Positioning

Venetian–Baroque colorito for flesh built by warm/cool temperatures.
Minimalist/modernist cinema for the shot-as-threshold architecture.
El Greco (spiritual tilt), Titian/Veronese → Velázquez (color-driven modeling).
Sargent (lost-and-found edges).

Cinematic DNA

Director echoes: Antonioni’s architectural thresholds; Ozu’s domestic doorways and tatami cuts; Tarkovsky’s liminal corridors and weather. 
Shot type: Medium close-up to medium shot, frontal; a vertical seam asserts the axis.
Blocking: Body poised at a slit of light; head tipped toward the gap; breath-held pause before crossing. 
Focal pull: Seam of light → notch at the throat → eye-line into the opening. 
Color grade: Venetian colorito—apricot/gold ground steadied by teals along jaw and neck.
Gesture/beat: Poised crossing; consented approach.

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