BiographyLorenzo Stirk is a self-taught artist from Mexico who currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona. He developed an individual approach and distinctive style of painting. His work features a combination of realistic portraiture and abstraction using human portraits and animals as the main subjects. He uses a delicate approach at the beginning of each painting, with the eyes being the focal point of his compositions, then continues with a more abstracted method using bold colors, exaggerated brushstrokes, paint splats and drips to capture emotion and movement, without loosing the balance between realism and abstraction. Lorenzo worked first with online gallery VangoArt, and currently is represented by Art One Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. Artist StatementI am fascinated by the visual beauty of realistic portraiture and the modern ideology of abstraction. I aim to create a balance between the order and chaos, and the stillness and movement that realism and abstraction represent. I believe that portraiture delivers a context of reality and expectation, while abstraction characterizes the unreal and unpredicted. My intention is to find the balance where both styles work together in order to deliver a composition the provokes a connection with the viewer where emotions are transmitted, and questions arise. I believe the eyes are the most important component of my portraits because they represent an invitation for the viewer to interact with the subject. With this in mind, I attempt to capture more realism on the eyes and around them, using delicate brush strokes and paint tones. Then, I continue my composition utilizing more powerful and expressionistic brushstrokes, paint splashes and drips, while using more vibrant colors to finalize with a composition that is able to express emotion, with a balance between realism and abstraction and most importantly, is able to invite the viewer in, to fill the blanks and finish the composition as one.