Inspiration

A dewdrop balances on the tip of a painted flower petal – and you find yourself staring at it, waiting for it to fall.

A mermaid arches up toward the sunlight – and though she is a creature of myth and imagination – you hear the bubbles from her breathing as they rise amid the silence of the sea.

The canvasses of the young American artist, Noah, are masterfully painted and breathtakingly realistic. And yet, something about them ignites a spark of recognition that goes far beyond the facts of their subject matter – something that touches viewers in a personal and spiritual way.

Noah’s paintings achieve a depth and richness that goes beyond photorealism to a new level of understanding. The effect is achieved by overpainting airbrushed canvasses with drips and rags. The inspiration comes from the soul of an artist who is in touch with his own spirituality, and anxious to touch the spiritual in each of his viewers. For Noah, the true subject of each painting is another step in a deeply personal journey. “[My paintings] are portals into my imagination and my dreams,” he says. “They are translations of my spiritual walk and feelings I’ve experienced throughout the stages of my life.”

Passages

The “stages” of Noah’s life begin with his earliest memories: his grandmother’s rose garden, his mother’s floral designs, watching his father paint for hours on end. He was only two when he began to draw, still in school when he started winning awards for his work, and just 16 when he committed to a life and career as an artist.

“Being an artist is a privilege and a responsibility,” he says. “I want to impact individuals in the way I am impacted spiritually. In the best of all possible worlds, I would like my work to bring comfort to others, and help them move forward on their own spiritual journey.”

From his teenage years, Noah sought, and continues to seek, a wide variety of subjects, commissions, and experiences. His warmth, magnetism, and desire to bring his art to people led to a series of groundbreaking performance “gigs” in clubs. In these venues, so far removed from the traditional quiet studio, Noah created art live, in person, and to the pulsating beat of dance music and the energy of the people around him.

Technique

Noah is an extraordinarily disciplined artist. “Being moved to paint is a conscious decision,” he says. “Blocks – that’s when I find out what I’m really made of. [The painting called] ‘Breakthrough’ is totally about that process.”

His creative routine starts in the morning with journal writing and reflection. Each canvas starts as a sketch. Once Noah has chosen a subject and composition, he uses models and his own photographs as references as he paints.

He carefully airbrushes the composition first, and then overpaints with more exuberant effects. “I like to mix photorealism with drips and rags. It contradicts itself but it works at the very end – the organic and natural contrasts beautifully with the structure of the airbrush and photorealism. It’s a nice marriage of techniques that gives the work more depth. The effect is almost trompe l’oiele; especially on the water drops on the flowers.”

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Noah has painted portraits of cars for Lexus, advertisements for Levi-Strauss, and murals for the royal family of Dubai. His art is in many corporate and private collections. Noah has turned sporty cars into shimmering metallic canvasses for breathtaking fantasies. He has created art for films, TV show launch parties and art at movie events. He works so quickly that he once painted T-shirts for Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise while they were inside watching a movie premier.

The artist lives in Southern California with his family.