Mark Stock: Paintings

Mark Stock: Paintings by Conrad III, Barnaby. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780942627640.

Mark Stocks paintings connect viewers to the euphoria, loneliness and sometimes fatal entanglements of romance. Often melodramatic and tinged with irony, Stocks images illustrate loves power to provoke our best, and most illicit, behavior. A well-dressed voyeur peeks past the curtain of a mansion window, silent and intent on the object of his desire. Picnicking lovers look into each others eyes. An attractive woman smokes a cigarette as she sits next to a mans corpse, which has been rolled neatly in a carpet, ready for disposal. A butler steals a moment to treasure lipstick left on a glass by the woman who employs him. Stocks paintings tell the story of each character with remarkable subtlety and, in many cases, with humor. Stock is, after all, a master of the realist style, and he uses color, shadow and line to amazing effect. Details in facial expression, body language and background tell you theres more going on here than rapture, scandal and dangerous liaisons. These paintings keep you coming back for another look, for clues to lifes telling moments.