Tajh Rust is a Brooklyn based painter. Tajh was an artist that I came across while I was doing research online and the way he approached gaze in his portraits caught me instantly, I knew I had to interview him.
I sat down ar with Tajh late last ye to discuss his painting over a Zoom call. In that call, we discussed many elements of his practice like his approach to portraiture, specifically the relationship with the sitter in his work, and how gaze plays a role in his paintings. It was a great experience talking to Tajh about his work, he is so considered with his answers that you gain so much in discussion with him. It a great conversation with a fantastic artist.
You get a sense of their personality. I try to approach each one individually. And I see if I can bring some of that into the painting itself. I had a body of work about three or four years ago, and it was strictly about looking at environments as an extension of our identities. Those paintings were set in places that each individual chose themselves, so there was a personal significance.
And that then became part of the portrait; my observations of the body occupying that space. I mostly work from photographs I take of the sitter in the space. I take lots of photos of the sitters because I paint very slowly. I tend to work from a lot of photographs, as source imagery, and then cobble together from there. Early on, I would try to find one photograph that I could paint from directly. Then when I started grad school, I was challenged on that approach. So, now I take more liberty in the source material.
I collage different moments, kind of like a Cubist approach where you can see around things, and the perspectives may not always align, but it tends to be more faithful to a feeling of that person or that environment. I have a series of paintings where the figures are all looking away. With those paintings, I usually start with a colour, often the complexion of their skin, and then build the painting from there.
