Usman
Keeping Your Head Up — oil painting of a seated woman in soft pastel light
Keeping Your Head Up
Oil on canvas

Usman
Muhammad

Figurative painting, drawing & sculpture
Waterloo Region, Ontario

Seen Enough — expressionist portrait, blue face against green and violet
Seen Enough
Acrylic on canvas
Happy Place — acrylic landscape of a forest lake
Happy Place
Acrylic on canvas
Give Me a Minute — gestural nude in red, green, and ochre
Give Me a Minute
Acrylic on canvas
Glass Jaw — two boxers in the ring, painted in yellow, red, and green
Glass Jaw
Spray paint on panel
Eye of the Storm — acrylic figure painted in spectral color against grey
Eye of the Storm
Acrylic on canvas
I Have to Go to Work — landscape of a city skyline seen across wooded hills
I Have to Go to Work
Acrylic on canvas
Euphoria — graphite portrait with violet eyes
Euphoria
Graphite on bristol vellum
Just Getting Started — acrylic portrait in colored strokes on copper ground
Just Getting Started
Acrylic on canvas
Figure drawing in sanguine — seated figure from behind
Figure Drawing in the Park
Sanguine
Waterloo Park — plein-air oil painting of towers over treetops
Waterloo Park
Oil on panel, plein air
Grand River Cabins — plein-air oil painting of a brick house among trees
Grand River Cabins
Oil on panel, plein air
Bruised and Battered — acrylic portrait in yellow, blue, and red
Bruised and Battered
Acrylic on canvas
Michelangelo study — clay sculpture of a foot
Michelangelo Study
Clay
Bust study — clay portrait head in progress
Bust Study
Clay
Skull and Head — two clay sculptures on the studio bench, one a spiked skull
Skull and Head
Clay

The Practice

I work from life wherever I can, whether that's figure sessions, plein-air landscapes along the Grand River, or clay studies from observation. My practice moves between oil, acrylic, graphite, and sculpture, always circling back to the human figure.

Currently painting in Waterloo, Ontario.

Usman painting en plein air at an easel in a meadow
Painting en plein air
Figure sculpting session in the studio
Figure sculpting from life