Black Rock Portrait Project Study Paintings Photo Gallery

The Black Rock Portrait Project is a series of portrait paintings using photographs for reference taken (mostly by me) at the Burning Man  event. This is an ongoing project which began in 2011 which will result in a book and gallery show (a small book of the study paintings has already been published, buy it at the link below).

Welcome Home: the Black Rock Portrait Project", now in it's 11th Year.  “Welcome Home.” These are the first words you here when you arrive at the gates of Burning Man. It is a Home like no other, transporting it’s eager participants into a world incomprehensible to outsiders. Participants are released from the bonds of their daily lives. They are free to express themselves in all manner of ways creative, bizarre and joyful. The experience of Burning Man can be life-changing for many people, and is at the very least, profound and extraordinary. It is almost unimaginable what is created out there in a temporary city of art and lavish experience, literally in the middle of nowhere, in the dust, wind and heat. However what truly creates this event is the people. Burning Man is at its core an event created by incredible people willing to brave the harshest of environments to bring their particular form of creation and expression to the community, to truly let their hair down, to recreate themselves and share an experience that can be had no where else on the planet. It is these people that participate in this glorious act of communal creation that inspired me to create "Welcome Home: the Black Rock Portrait Project."