Reclining Nude, 2026
Oil on Panel
40 x 40

David Baird began studying painting in 2006 at the Ryder Studio, followed by other notable schools, including the Janus Collaborative and the Jerusalem Studio School. He currently serves as a faculty member at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

While the reclining nude recalls a long art historical lineage, the figure here resists idealization. The body is individualized, rendered with a directness that prioritizes presence over perfection. The surrounding objects – mostly fruits and flowers – evoke the tradition of still life while simultaneously destabilizing it. Balancing immediacy with restraint, the forms appear both solid and provisional. The faint grid lines and areas of exposed underpainting reveal the artist’s process, emphasizing construction over illusion and inviting the viewer into the act of seeing and creating.

Light plays a central role, flattening and compressing space while also creating volume. The form’s treatment, hovering between depth and surface, pays homage to the painter’s perennial inquiry into how perception and illusion hinges delicately on the tension between flatness and form. The result is an image that feels both intimate and analytical, oscillating between precision and looseness, balanced both by stillness and becoming.

40 x 40

Oil on Panel