David Cheifetz: Manipulating Reality

David Cheifetz: Manipulating Reality

David Cheifetz - "Black Hole" 9" x 12" Oil on panel

David Cheifetz - "Of This World" 8" x 10" Oil on panel.

I recently posted about portrait painter Stephen Bennett and how he replaces colors in his amazing acrylic portrait paintings. I mentioned that I had used a photo of one of his portraits in my beginner oil painting class to show my students how important values are and how you could swap out any color you wanted to as long as they kept the values the same.

I just recently learned about David Cheifetz who paints these wonderful portraits and still life paintings. In "Black Hole" (pictured above) David replaces the yellow green of the drapery in one section with the same value pale purple that creates a fantastic splash of color directly below the main subject of the painting - the black hole of the water pitcher. David likes to infuse some of his pieces with fresh bursts of color but just enough to intrigue you. He manipulates reality for his own amusement and it works. His paintings done using his palette knife have exciting movement and vitality. He also works with brush just as effectively but my favorite paintings are those done with the palette knife. 

I would definitely love to take a workshop with him but for now I'm going to purchase his download tutorials and see what bits of knowledge I can pick up from those. 

Please check out his work at:  https://davidcheifetz.com/