Green Man 2, acrylic on canvas

Tom O’Rourke is a painter based in Ireland. Tom paints in a loose, gestural style, generally favouring abstraction, though sometimes using his style to render hazy suggestions of figures and landscapes.

Colour of Music 3, acrylic on canvas

I love the way color factors into Tom’s body of work. The artist tends to use one major color group in each work, though there is significant variation between different works and series of works. Tom’s abstract works tend toward loose geometry and planes of saturated color – in his aptly named “abstract colour painting” series, Tom layers thick lines and rectangular forms in flat, bright color over top of each other, building a picture plane with an interesting sense of depth and layers.

The front page of Tom's portfolio website

Tom’s “Green Man” series is especially intriguing – the deep emerald and blue hues present in this series lend a sense of intrigue to each work, which is bolstered by the sparse, bare suggestion of a face that forms the focal point of each work. The viewer’s mind is left ample opportunity to fill on the blanks.

Green Man 1, acrylic on canvas