Kayleigh Swenson

Four canvases came out of one archive folder, and not one of them was planned as part of a set.

Painting Kayleigh Swenson in the studio

The first thing I saw was a face that photographs as arrogant. That reading belongs to the photograph, not to her, and Kayleigh (Tattoos) is the canvas where I caught the joke underneath it instead of the armour. I did not decide to. It happened somewhere in the second week and I only noticed afterwards.

Kayleigh (Smile) came apart while I was making it. Somewhere in the middle of it the paint stops describing anything and simply becomes paint. It is the loosest thing I have made, and I did not aim for it, because I never aim for anything.

Kayleigh (Green Straps) is yellow across the whole canvas because I wanted it yellow. There is no reason beyond that and I am not going to invent one.

Kayleigh and Emily (Girls) is the odd one out: two figures, and a vantage point you would not have chosen to stand in. That displacement is the entire reason it exists.

Painting the same subject four times shows you things a single canvas cannot. In three of the four her mouth is open. I did not choose that either. It is simply what she does, and four canvases is how I found out.

Each image was saved without deciding anything, left alone for months, then painted days at a time with long gaps between them. Each stopped when I was finished with it, which is not the same thing as the canvas being finished.

Kayleigh Swenson paintings: what exists

There are four original paintings of Kayleigh Swenson, oil on stretched canvas and oil on canvas, from 100 × 80 cm to 120 × 90 cm. Each is a one of one: signed, with a certificate of authenticity, and none of them will be painted again. Two of them are also available as hand-signed prints in editions capped at 50, printed once and never reprinted. The canvases were painted by hand from those photographs; what they became is the painter's doing, not hers.

What is still available, and at what price, is on the cards below.