Florence Rittner explores the human experience through art.  Somewhere between mixing his oils and applying them to canvas, he engenders colors and textures to create human figures whose actions and emotions are depicted by way of the smallest details of expression or posture; layers of charcoal, black, brown, and blue coat each canvas, reinforcing the mood of the works.  The pigments are mottled into each other to echo the depth and complexity of life.

Working not just with paintbrushes but with his fingers as well, Rittner makes a direct connection to the process of creation.   It’s an interesting parallel with the flesh-and-blood figures peopling our real world, whose most revealing gestures often are not obvious, but those flashes of thought that now and again are written across our faces for the briefest amounts of time—and so missed by all but the most attentive of observers.  “I like to trigger an emotional response in the viewer of my paintings,” he states, “expressing the hidden within known forms.” Florence Rittner currently lives and works in Hawaii.