Life-sized paintings provide a contemporary twist to traditional portraiture

American Art Collector

October 2005

At the age of 30, Utah-based artist Jeffrey Hein has already developed a painting style that seems to go much beyond his years.  In his figurative works, which are typically life-sized, Hein is able to show his adeptness in the medium as well as his ability to deal with color, pattern and composition.

But for Hein, completing a painting is still a very organic process. 

“When I step in front of each freshly prepared blank canvas, I’m ready to paint, but hesitant,” says Hein.  “I make the first mark, and then another, and then another.  Soon a mouth appears, then a nose and then eyes.” 

And from this point, Hein begins to see the figure coming out of the canvas.

“Life starts to emerge from the flat textured surface,” says Hein.  “The image begins to look back at me and I can feel its emotion.”

Hein’s contemporary twist on traditional portraiture allows him to gain inspiration from a number of different sources, including people he sees and meets on the street, while also allowing him to develop a personal style of his own. 

“My inspiration is so broad and so varied,” says Hein.  “I always felt that traditional portraiture is very hard to live with because the person buying the painting doesn’t know those people in the work.  So, I’ve tried to translate that style more towards fine art by working with composition and patterns.  I’m still sticking to realism but there are some abstract elements to it as well.”

The main focus of Hein’s work, though, is still the human figure, but this inclusion of stylistic elements makes him able to create a painting that works on different levels as well.

“While my subject matter is predominantly the human figure, it is not entirely my main focus,” says Hein.  “The figures I choose to paint serve as a kind of hanger on which I place props, accessories, and clothing that function as compositional elements, with the figure itself, within a minimalist arrangement of simple shapes, lines and colors.  My goal with each of my paintings is to create a perfect marriage between figurative realism and abstract minimalism.”

For collectors of figurative works, Hein hopes they are able to see the differences in style that are apparent in his works.

“I’m hoping they notice that many figurative works have a very layered quality that comes from multiple corrections and a certain laboring over the fine details of a painting, and this causes the quality of the work to be less fluid and less graceful,” says Hein.  “The works in this show are very clean, wet to wet, it’s a one shot deal for me.  I never go back into a work.  They are very colorful, vibrant and clean.”

But, for Hein, this is all a person should need to know abut any particular painting.

“With portraiture, people want to know everything about the person who is depicted,” says Hein.  “Who are they, what are they doing, etc.  But, with my work all of that is irrelevant.  What’s important are things like color, shape, pattern.  The painting is about the paint, nothing more that that.”

Although Hein has only been painting and exhibiting professionally for three years, his career received an initial push when he met gallery owner Clayton Williams.

“When I was a student at the University of Utah, I got a scholarship, and part of that scholarship was a show at Williams Fine Art Gallery,” says Hein.  “That show helped me to get a studio and to start a career right out of college.  That was very important for me early on.”