Too many artists in this category interest me. The long list includes:
Joan Eardley. Pierre Bonnard. Gustave Courbet. Renato Gatuso. Peter de Francia. Walter Sickert.
Vincent van Gogh. RB Kitaj. Jules Bastien LePage. Alison Watt. Pablo Picasso. Egon Schiele.
Paula Rego. Max Beckmann.
BUT if I had to pick three right now. Today. I will go with from top to bottom: Euan Uglow (1932-2000), Jean-Edouard Vuillard (1868- 1940), and Chantal Joffe (1969- ).
The first used geometry to plan his work to the n-degree. Plumb lines. Sighting Strings. Marks that live models had to conform to, regardless of the difficulty. Uglow’s from the Coldstream school via Slade. A fantastic draughtsman. [Below: Two Pears, 1990, oil on canvas, 17.1×24.1cm.]
Vuillard was more abstract in his figurative work. He best known of a late 20th c. period of the “Nabi” avant garde movement in France. Some describe this as placing areas of pure colour to the fore. “Flattened planes of colour, pattern, and form,” in the view of London’s Tate. [Below: Madame Vuillard faisant ses comptes, 1898, oil on card, signed, 20 x 23 cm (7.9 x 9 in).]
Chantal Joffe is a contemporary painter known for portraiture. Her lines are loose and scenes occasionally domestic: and epic in size on occasion. She was born in the U.S. but lives and works in Britain. She often applies quite heavy applications of colour. [Below: Story, 2000, oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm, (23 5/8 x 31 1/2 in).]
