'Moth' by Leon Aarts, acrylics on canvas

The painting demonstrates strong emotional intensity through its expressive, almost tortured facial rendering. The artist uses a rich, warm palette dominated by golds, browns, and deep reds that creates a cohesive, glowing atmosphere. The brushwork is bold and gestural, giving the piece raw energy and psychological depth. The close-cropped composition creates an intimate, confrontational quality that draws viewers into the subject's troubled gaze.

This appears to be an expressionistic portrait prioritizing emotional impact over technical precision. It successfully conveys anguish or psychological turmoil through distortion and gestural mark-making. The painting has a Francis Bacon-esque quality in its treatment of the human face as a site of existential anxiety. Whether this achieves the artist's intentions would depend on the desired balance between expressive distortion and representational clarity.

This is a portrait of friend I used to work with, an heroic, gutsy friend and colleague who possesses an amazing durability and immeasurable fortitude.