Wayne Ensrud has had a strong affinity for portraiture from the time he began to paint. Less concerned about portraying the physical features of his sitters as realistically as possible, Ensrud is more interested in capturing their inner psyche through bold features, colors, contours and brushstrokes as well as delicate lines. His mentor Oskar Kokoschka instructed him to not paint the eye but rather the ‘look’ in the eye; to not paint the lips but the ‘breath’ on the lips. By capturing these living attributes, Ensrud uniquely portrays the pulsation of life in each of his sitters.
