The Buck, 2021
Oil on Belgian Linen with 24 Karat Gold
72 × 72 × 2 in | 182.9 × 182.9 × 5.1 cm
Frame included
Sean Rush’s The Buck (2021) is a grand-scale oil painting on raw Belgian linen, incorporating 24-karat gold leaf and boldly measuring 72″ × 72″. In this piece, Rush presents a mythic meditation: a man crowned with antlers emerges from the linen ground itself, as if organically sprouting from the material realm.
The raw linen serves as the natural mid-tone, blurring the line between figure and field. Warm sienna brushstrokes—both precise and gestural—trace muscle, bone, and expression, while preserving a sense of inherent movement. The antlers, rendered with the same conviction as the hands and torso, are not mere adornment but extensions of the figure—symbolizing a profound symbiosis between human and stag.
The painting exists in a visual tension between precision and dynamism. Portrait and symbol merge into a hybrid identity: grounded in substance yet reaching into wilderness. The Buck speaks to primal power, transformation, and the seamless interweaving of humanity with mythic instinct.
The raw linen serves as the natural mid-tone, blurring the line between figure and field. Warm sienna brushstrokes—both precise and gestural—trace muscle, bone, and expression, while preserving a sense of inherent movement. The antlers, rendered with the same conviction as the hands and torso, are not mere adornment but extensions of the figure—symbolizing a profound symbiosis between human and stag.
The painting exists in a visual tension between precision and dynamism. Portrait and symbol merge into a hybrid identity: grounded in substance yet reaching into wilderness. The Buck speaks to primal power, transformation, and the seamless interweaving of humanity with mythic instinct.