We have come to spare ourselves too much of life’s natural awkwardness. When is the last time you sat a few seconds longer inside an awkward moment, especially one shared with a stranger? You should try it. It’s fascinating! There is such vulnerability in a way of being which is totally unrehearsed. To witness something like that—in oneself or another—is precious.

Painter Matt Doust is brilliant when it comes to being able to capture a moment in time of someone’s soul like this. For that period during which his model is being painted, he/she belongs to Doust. Even his portrayal of a subject’s collarbone is exquisite; there is a reverence in it. The reverence (on the part of Doust toward his subjects) is borne of an attempt to mirror rather than to perfect. He seeks not to mold his subject, but rather to recreate him/her.

Take for instance Doust’s renowned painting, “White Cocoon,” his portrait of Gemma Ward, the youngest fashion model to grace the cover of Vogue (she did so at age sixteen). This piece earned Doust the coveted Archibald Prize of 2011. It was not his flawless depiction of Ward’s body that was most striking (though it was indeed striking), but rather the expression on Ward’s face and her positioning on the canvas. I found myself confounded that an inanimate object (a canvas) could stimulate every one of the senses, as did this portrait.

Matt Doust’s work is a testament to the fact that life is about limitations—our ability to transcend or succumb to them. At the end of the day, there is little more than this. What colors life, and each of us, is how these limitations differ. Using oil, canvas and an impressive supply of artistic hunger, Doust is able to capture this fact—the unique struggle of an individual.

Words by Ariel Maccarone (@ArielMacc). Photos courtesy of Matt Doust.