Figurative - Harikleia Fine Art Studios

The figurative works in this gallery are all drawn or painted from life, using either charcoal or oil paint. The gallery includes a selection of mudheads. The mudhead, an often featureless, mud-colored painting of a figure silhouetted against sky or sea, is a technique of painting originating with Charles W. Hawthorne, the founder of the Cape Cod School of Art in 1896. Hawthorne, who was teaching the then new Impressionist vision in Provincetown, MA, used the mudhead as a teaching method. He posed models outdoors against the sun to teach his students how to perceive the color and shape of light without getting caught up in painting the outline and features of the model.

Harikleia painted these mudheads on the beaches of Provincetown while studying with Cedric and Joanette Egeli. Cedric was a student of Henry Hensche, Hawthorne’s student and successor. The mudheads were painted on board with a palette knife and show her study of color and light.