Adrian Deckbar

My work explores what I boundaries I can push as a photorealist, abstracting nature; currently focusing on water. The transformation of photographic source material into acrylic and oil paintings has taken on an electric-like effect: shimmering light rays glancing off the reflected upside-down world we see on the water’s surface.

After undergrad school, I decided to move to San Fransisco to study under Robert Bechtle, earning my MA in Painting. I began exhibiting photorealistic work based on the figure, with cinematic content. With shows titled “B Movie” and “Kidnap!” I found a connection between the Baroque master Caravaggio and my contemporary influences: Chuck Close, and Cindy Sherman. Using staging and intense lighting while posing the models for dramatic effect, the photos I took were translated into larger than life-sized paintings.

In 2003, I began to explore the primal imagery of her surroundings, both the swamps of Southern Louisiana and the very primal Ozark Mountains, to see if I could achieve the same dramatic effect from nature as I had gotten with figures. I photographed water and reflections using strong sunlight and cast shadows to create a sense of drama in much the same manner as I rendered the human figure.

I now continue to explore the visual dynamics of painting both the landscape and the figure. My new figurative pieces feature over-life sized monochromatic heads. And my new waterscape images feature the creeks of Arkansas mountains and the bayous of City Park in New Orleans.