Artists have a variety of methods to make their mark. Every Friday we will share a photograph of an #ArtistInAction. Lynette Yiadom Boakye (b. 1977) is a British painter who creates fictional character studies of black women and men. She pictures her subjects dancing, lounging or dreaming in front of backdrops of vibrant color. In the absence of a specific context, these people appear almost otherworldly, their humanity a phenomenon of the paint. Seated in front of a warm orange-yellow,a barefoot man, posed in profile, holds a blue bird up to his gaze. Before a wash of cool green, a pair of women in brighter green cardigans, their arms linked, pirouette into each other’s eyes. Perhaps in acknowledgement of their inherent fiction, the subjects of Boakye’s paintings often appear clothed in the garb of performers - dancers, actors, and athletes. Whether in making eye contact with the viewer or self-consciously looking away, they tend to seem aware of being seen. Boakye’s talent for evok...