My recent paintings, which I refer to as cowgirl portraits, feature paint swatch samples shaped, painted, and collaged into distorted, mixed-media portraits. The inspiration and blueprint for the facial features come from 1960s wig ads standard in romantic comic books of the time. Stylistically, this new series sits between precision and playfulness, both figurative and abstract. These are strong women, no longer restrained by the beauty standards of the time. The cowgirl series is part of a larger project exploring and deconstructing fantasy tropes from American western culture. Antithetical to the suburban Texas confines of my youth and the precision and desolate domestic themes of my earlier work, this world and work are expansive, unkept, and feral.
Process video for Texas Two-Step #11 (Glynda)
Texas Two-Step #16 (Gayle), 2023, soft pastel, charcoal, and graphite on paper, 56 x 42″
Texas Two-Step #15 (Janice), 2023, soft pastel, charcoal, and graphite on paper, 56 x 42″
Texas Two-Step #14 (Janice), 2023, soft pastel, charcoal, and graphite on paper, 56 x 42″
Texas Two-Step #13 (Glynda), 2023, soft pastel and graphite on paper, 51 x 42″
Texas Two-Step #12 (Glynda), 2023, charcoal, wax pastel, and graphite on paper, 56 x 42″
Texas Two-Step #11 (Glynda), 2022, collaged paint swatches, pencil, crayon, acrylic on wood panel 48 x 36″
Texas Two-Step #10 (Sylvia), 2022-2023, collaged paint swatches, ink, acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 20″
Texas Two-Step #9 (Frances), 2022-2023, collaged paint swatches, acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 20″
Texas Two-Step #8 (Fannie), 2022-2023, collaged paint swatches, crayon, acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 20″
Texas Two-Step #7 (Minerva), 2022-2023, collaged paint swatches, ink, acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 20″
Texas Two-Step #6 (Zara), 2022, collaged paint swatches, graphite, colored pencil, acrylic on wood panel, 20 x 16″
Texas Two-Step #5 (Janice), 2022, collaged paint swatches, graphite, colored pencil, acrylic on wood panel, 20 x 16″
Texas Two-Step #4 (Eva), 2022, collaged paint swatches, graphite, colored pencil, acrylic on wood panel, 20 x 16″
Texas Two-Step #3 (Staci), 2022, collaged paint swatches, graphite, acrylic on wood panel, 20 x 16″
Texas Two-Step #2 (Vera), 2022, collaged paint swatches, acrylic on wood panel, 20 x 16″
Texas Two-Step #1 (Gayle), 2021, collaged paint swatches, acrylic on wood panel, 20 x 16″
Jeff Gauntt-Quiceno 