Heather Wright/The Independent

Liana Russwurm wants to capture the soul of the people she paints.

The Alvinston artist’s new exhibit Homme at the Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery inSarnia, peers into what makessix men tick.

Russwurm did some of her training in Italy where she was inspired by the artist Caravaggio. “He did a bunch of paintings of young boys with flowers, fruit baskets, musical instruments,” she said “and I always wanted to do a series
of modern men like that with tattoos.”

She began the series in 2017 with a portrait called White Orchids. At the time, she was talking with the curator of the
JNAAG about the work and there was interest in a show. But life got in the way and while Russwurm kept creating, there wasn’t a show in the offing at the time.

Recently, she was speaking with the JNAAG’s Curator Sonya Blazek, explaining that she had several paintings in the series completed. “I just finally said, ‘Let’s do this,’” Russwurm said. “So she said, ‘Don’t worry about how many paintings you have,” the artist recalls.

When Homme opened Oct. 3, there were six completed portraits in the downtown gallery for patrons to see.

“They’re intensive paintings to do. They’re just lots of details, and compared to my other work,” Russwurm says.

The artist begins by asking someone she knows if they would sit for photographs.

“I would ask the models to come and bring something that’s more personal to them, so it integrates a bit of that,” she
says.

“Every picture is like all kind of the same in the way, that it’s a topless man.”

Russwurm says sometimes her friends don’t understand the process. International Rodeo Champion Tyler Foster from Alvinston, for example, couldn’t figure out why there would be flowers in the painting. His wife eventually convinced him of the beauty of the work. His painting was one of the first to sell, Russwurm says.

The Alvinston artist used to paint mostly women and plans to return to painting women reflecting on body image “which affects I think most women in the world.

“But surprisingly, when I started doing these paintings, I found it very much that the men have the same issues.”

Russwurm is excited to show her works in her hometown public gallery saying that while the works hang in her home and she knows them well, “when you walk in the gallery seeing them, it’s a totally different thing.

“I’ve never shown at public art galleries. I’ve always shown at private galleries…so it’s a different level, I think, for my
work.”

And she hopes the work provides insight into the people in the portraits. “I think I capture a life about a person. I always say I think I capture the soul of them….I think I capture place within them, not just their physical features.”

Russwurm’s exhibit Homme will be at the JNAAG until March 20.