Legendary
My latest painting, Brando (2018), is dedicated to Marlon Brando. He was a man who never played by the rules. This is why his acting style was completely unique.
Brando was one of a kind. But his life was not without controversy. Before he became famous, he was expelled for riding a motorbike through his school. He married three times and was father to 11 children, one of whom was found guilty of murder.
He used his suffering in life to bring an incomparable depth to the characters he played. It is for this reason that Marlon Brando is considered one of the greatest actors of all time.
Presence
In spite of this, his career was anything but smooth sailing. After his initial success, he had a decade of failures and many thought he was washed up. Ultimately, he proved them wrong.
While Brando became morbidly obese later in life, in the 1950’s he was very much a sex symbol. He excelled at playing the tough guy and his performance as Stanley Kowalski was no exception.
For his role in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, he was nominated for the first of many Academy Awards for Best Actor. At this stage, he was in peak physical condition.
I particularly liked the way he wore a plain white t-shirt. His especially muscular physique seemed to elevate it to a work of art. I wanted my painting, Brando (2018), to capture both his brute masculinity and his ardent sensuality.
In order to focus on his character, I kept my palette basic. I started with black and white and then added a little colour. I used a similar approach when painting Bogart (2017) and Lee (2017). Although the composition is simple, the result shows his complexity and raw emotion. Brando (2018) is a painting that salutes a screen legend and shows that sex appeal is timeless.