“Years ago when the hubs and I bought our EPA-condemned shack in the mountains, we gutted the entire interior – dodged a few rat carcasses careening from the rafters – and got intimately familiar with every nook and cranny of Home Depot.
That’s how I know that the OSB ‘canvas’ that Russian-German contemporary artist @tania_rivilis uses for her sublime portraits (like this one!) is also known as oriented strandboard.
Any self-respecting lady should NOT know that term, but I digress. (It was a dark period in my life heh heh. I also know how to wire electrical outlets, grout tile, and a lot of other DIY contractor-y things that I hope to never ever ever draw upon again from my vast house building skillset.)
But TANIA is **really** the star of this show. First of all, I always leap for joy when I see portraits of men, period. Sure, women are lovely but there are way too many feminine visages clogging up Instagram.
This gorgeous take on male portraiture seems sooo ravishingly poetic. And her palette makes me want to say LORDY LORDY HALLELUJAH AMEN (I’m not even 1% religious!).
But back to the OSB that Tania uses for her canvas. Basically, it’s made of tightly bonded wood chips. Lots o’ texture.
That’s why Tania’s portraiture – which is already so skillfully executed – looks extra special. In a way, she’s made the wood bend to her will!
I wanted to share 5 of her male portraits since they are all quite excellent, but I don’t want to waste them due to the speed-scrolling tendency of this platform.
So…I will meter them out over time like excellent quality chocolate. (Who am I kidding? I plow through chocky every chance I get… life’s too short to savor it for a rainy day!”
Elizah Leigh
𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 & 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐟𝐟 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫
for @beautifulbizarremagazine