Portrait of the Buddha in a Contemporary Style

Contemporary Style Painting (acrylic on stretched linen 58"X26")

Artist: John Potter

This painting fits into a series of paintings exploring the use of custom linear halftones I have been working on.

I just finished a painting of a Siren of the Sea and I wanted to do a similar companion piece. I wanted it to have a soothing meditative effect like a Zen Garden. I considered a few options but settled on a statue of Buddha pretty quickly. I tinkered with some concepts like showing the statue in the jungle kind of Angkor Wat style but all of those experiments were too detailed and complex so I settled on a more straightforward approach. The pattern is based on a common Buddhist motif called The Flower of Life. I decided to add some orchids and a Green And Black Poison Dart Frog at the last minute which I'm not showing here.

This painting actually integrates three patterns compared to the two in the Siren of the Sea painting. Seen in person at common viewing distances it makes the portrait and the pattern both about equal in visibility so it's easy to find yourself kind of staring into the painting. Repetition is a pleasant thing for the brain to process so the pattern becomes something like the recurring chorus in a song.

art working pattern