Ilya Voss

Portraits

Faces lit from a single window, in the old Dutch way.

Ilya paints people the way the Dutch masters did: one source of light, a deep umber ground, and the patience to let a face emerge from the dark over many sittings.

He builds each portrait in thin glazes over a monochrome underpainting, then returns with thick lead white for the places where light touches skin.

Paints from life and from photographs, 4 to 10 weeks per portrait.