Jackie and John, 2000

Elizabeth Peyton is an American painter who specializes in oils and has been popular since the middle of the 1990s. Her contemporary art features idealized and stylized renditions of her friends and paramours as well as monarchs from Europe and pop culture icons. The vast majority of her works have been small-scale portraits, and she claims that her inspiration comes from the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, Alfred Stieglitz and Nadar, all of whom took photographs of those close to them. Her oil works often have glazes that she allows to drip across the work, although she also has produced works in pencil, etching and watercolor. Many of her figures have feminine aspects but are generally ambiguous sexually. She uses photographs as the basis for her paintings and then paints from those. Elizabeth Peyton has also made prints -- monotypes, woodcuts and lithographs -- experimenting with a variety of techniques and different papers for the final product.