The New York painter John Hyland specializes in portraits and figure studies, though his oeuvre also includes still-lifes, floral studies and depictions of the land, the sea and the city. Whether the subject is a friend, a model or a flower, John’s paintings utilize color, form, light and line while exploring emotional and psychological beauty and truth. His decades-long background in journalism — as an editor at The New York Times and before that as a reporter and an editor at The Hartford Courant — has had an undeniable influence on his search for that truth. Like the stories he used to edit and write, the oil paintings he creates present a narrative that stays true to the subject at hand, as the story and the image become one.