Portraits

Artur Rama paints them close and detailed. Lady of the House is a Renaissance portrait in miniature at 24 by 30cm, worked braid by braid with the background dissolved into smoke. Rain Flower has white paint pulled down the whole surface in long thin runs, so the face is seen through a rained-on window.

Michele Rama does the opposite. She lays colour down in flat decisive patches and refuses to blend them, so the likeness only assembles itself once you step back from it. Che Caprio and Mirrored gaze are both a metre tall and read clearly across a room. Got my eye on you takes the idea furthest, a single eye filling the whole canvas.