Travis Blackburn

I am a self-taught painter living and working in Brooklyn, New York. I work primarily in oil paint, creating figurative paintings and still lifes. My paintings often begin with photographs, sketches, or direct observation. I enjoy moving between these different ways of working and allowing the image to change as the painting develops. Some paintings stay close to their source, while others end up somewhere I never expected.

Photography has had a strong influence on my work, particularly the work of queer photographers and photographers associated with New York. I am drawn to images that feel intimate, honest, and a little mysterious. Photography has also shaped the way I think about composition, cropping, and atmosphere.

Color is one of the things I enjoy most about painting. Many of my paintings begin with a warm orange wash that remains visible throughout the process. I like building color slowly and discovering relationships between warm and cool tones. In recent years I have become increasingly interested in how color can shape the mood of a painting and bring different parts of an image together.

As a self-taught artist, I have developed my practice through experimentation, observation, and consistent studio work. I enjoy studying artists I admire, but painting has largely been a process of finding my own solutions and learning through experience. Most paintings begin with a plan, but the most interesting moments usually happen when something unexpected occurs.

Many of my paintings depict figures, interiors, and still lifes. While the work often grows out of personal experiences and interests, I am less interested in telling a specific story than in creating images that feel open-ended. Often I begin a painting without fully understanding what draws me to the subject. Part of the reason I continue to paint is to spend time with those questions.