Respect

Two faces in profile turned toward one another across a field of slate blue. Original acrylic on canvas, signed, framed and ready to hang.

Two figures fill the canvas, reduced almost to mass.

On the left, a seated figure in near-black, head lowered, shoulders rounded, one hand resting forward on a raised knee. Only the face is modelled — a brow, closed eyes, the line of a nose and mouth caught in faint grey. Everything else is silhouette.

On the right, larger and closer to us, a second figure seen from behind. The head is bare and turned slightly, the back broad and lit down one side in sweeping strokes of white and pale grey. We see nothing of this person’s face.

Behind them, a horizon: a dark band of scrub or crowd running across the canvas, and above it a flat pale grey sky.

The whole painting works on a single decision — the figure facing us is dark, and the figure turned away is light. That inversion keeps the eye moving between them and stops either one dominating. Neither is fully described, and there is no detail anywhere to tell you who they are, where this is, or what has just been said.

What remains is posture. One bowed, one kneeling. The relationship between them is unmistakable even though nothing in the painting states it, and the absence of faces makes it belong to anyone looking.

Painted in a narrow range — black, white, and a cool grey-blue — with no colour anywhere to soften it.

This is a serious painting and it needs a wall that can hold quiet. It suits a study, a hallway, a meditation space or a reception.

Original acrylic on canvas, signed and dated by the artist. Supplied framed and ready to hang, with a certificate of authenticity. One of a kind — no reproductions of this work are sold.

Specifications:

• Subject: Two figures in profile
• Medium:  Acrylic on canvas
• Genre: Contemporary figurative
• Type: Original diptych, one of a kind
• Panel: Two
• Size: 36 x 24 in
• Orientation: Landscape
• Framing:  Black float frame, ready to hang
• Signed: Yes, by the artist
• Included: Certificate of authenticity