Richard Wathen

Though Richard Wathen paints a range of figures—including adolescents, nude women, old men, and, occasionally, animals—he contends that all of his works are autobiographical, saying, “I consider all of the portraits to be self-portraits.” Each of his paintings begins with a memory, which he often embodies in the figure of a human being, making autobiographical references with his choices of clothing, gender, coloring, and accoutrements. Wathen combines these personal references with art-historical ones, his works evoking the style of master portraitists like Thomas Gainsborough, but with an eerie, sometimes sinister twist.