Blood, Beauty and Lipstick

Odd combination you think? Joshua Petker, acrylics artist begs to disagree. Petker caught my eye when I was randomly surfing the net. His striking portrayal of a woman with an attitude problem immediately got me to browse through his online gallery. This artist is unique in that he uses almost only acrylic in all his artwork and only paints women. Classic Petker includes use of bright colours (blue, red, pink, green) in unusual combinations to produce something straight-out, scandalous, sketchy and sexy. This isn’t to say that his work is trashy; he’s got much deeper themes running underneath the pretty faces. He seems to explore identity confusion, angst, despair and several other negative emotions through his subjects.
Petker only started painting professionally five or six years ago but he has admitted to having created graffiti all his life along with friends for amusement’s sake. Of course this unknowingly gave him the scaffolding needed to pursue Fine Arts in earnest. Only aged thirty, he has already achieved quite a bit of success and his artwork has found its way into the hands of interested private collectors. Now he paints almost every day in his Hollywood home, enjoying ironically the privacy and space it provides.
Petker claims that he draws what he finds beautiful and drawing girls comes to him most naturally. What he sacrifices in versatility of subject matter, he makes up in subject detailing. Each painting is unique, with one primary color hoarding the canvas. He makes use of a subject reference each time he begins a new project but often changes the face and body of the model, going with the flow. His paintings, as a result, are impulsive, whimsical and young- something that appeals to me both as an artist and an onlooker.
He’s one of my favourite artists at the moment because what he does is real, alive and possible. His paintings are very relevant for the now. They don’t exhibit social problems and squalor but instead show you exactly what you want to see- raw beauty-relentlessly and without shame.