Cody Pryseski, Painter

Cody Pryseski is a Baltimore-based artist specializing in portrait and figurative oil paintings. He takes a humanist approach to painting, believing in the value of classical, traditional training and techniques. Inspiration is key, but then you have to put in the work. His attention to detail and quality compels him to continually re-work his canvases, until he achieves the right mood. The goal is to capture the personality of his subject.

Willem de Kooning said, “Flesh is the reason why oil painting was invented.” Pryseski uses the impasto technique, thickly layering his figures with oil paint. This brings additional texture to the work, allowing for the artist to manipulate the play of light and rendering the figure more expressive.

Pryseski is inspired by Stephen Conroy, Phillip Pearlstein, and Chuck Close (whom he met when he accidentally stumbled into Close’s SoHo gallery). But his work is most strongly influenced by Lucien Freud. Pryseski saw Freud’s’ first U.S. show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1993. The well-worn brochure from that show remains in his studio today, always close at hand for inspiration.

Cody grew up in Baltimore, MD. He graduated from MICA in 1996 with a GFA degree.  He maintains a studio at Towson University where he is an MFA candidate.