Allegro

A young woman emerges from a dark ground, her wool coat, furled umbrella, and long gray skirt gathered around a moment of laughter. Allegro brings together Jeff's interest in character and his long fascination with the single figure. The paintings of Velázquez and Manet are part of that conversation, but the presence he sought belongs to our own time.

For Jeff, the figure is also an arrangement of shapes, a mood carried through the language of painting. He gives a work weeks or months of looking, probing, and editing because something in it has captured him. Allegro carries that personal investment into his larger hope for every painting, a connection with someone who recognizes what he saw.