• Post category:art / sculpture

Paintbrush Portraits by Rebecca Szeto

Paintbrush Portraits by Rebecca Szeto

These Paintbrush Portraits by San Francisco artist Rebecca Szeto are from her ‘Leisure & Labor – Trash & Treasure,’ an ongoing series she began in 1999. It’s comprised of hand-carved wooden paintbrushes embellished with oil painted portraits. Offering what she terms “a critique on consumerism”, the series plays with the notions of beauty and values, women’s roles in society and class dynamics.

Paintbrush Portraits by Rebecca Szeto

Honor:
Honor, Paintbrush Portraits by Rebecca Szeto

Doña Hongari after Velazquez:
Doña Hongari after Velazquez painted brush

Menina IV:
Menina IV hand-painted paint brushes

2B:
rebecca szeto art painted brushes

Madonna and child:
Madonna and child hand-painted old brush

Dark Habits:
Dark Habits Rebecca Szeto

Daughter-of-Fortune (ode to Allende redux):
Daughter-of-Fortune (ode to Allende redux)

Grand Dame:
Grand Dame

Concubine:
Concubine by rebecca szeto

Geisha:
Geisha hand-painted paint brushes

Innocence:
Innocence Paintbrush Portraits by Rebecca Szeto

The World Is Your Oyster (after Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring):
The World is Your Oyster Paintbrush Portraits by Rebecca Szeto

Untitled (blue):
Untilted Blue Paintbrush Portraits by Rebecca Szeto

Szeto says “I use humble, end-of-life, mass-produced materials inspired by my experience as a faux finisher and initially by Velázquez’s 17th century painting, Las Meninas. The paintbrush is self-referential, acting as both subject and object. It refers to the history of painting, through the medium of paint, using its own tool. The slow and repetitive nature of whittling becomes a meditative strategy I employ in order to reflect more directly on the idiosyncrasies of each individual brush. Working intuitively, the layered surfaces of the paintbrushes become collaborators in defining their ultimate form and visual temperament while shedding light on the subtleties of the human condition.”

Rebecca spoke with Bored Panda about this project. Check that out here

Rebecca Szeto
information and images – many of which were cropped – courtesy of Rebecca Szeto