VAIL, Colorado — For many people in Colorado's Vail Valley, it's hard to imagine wanting somebody's else's portrait staring down from the wall day after day.

That's what some people think until they see Lu Cong's large scale paintings.

“Somehow, he's able to present an anonymous person as the subject of his work in a way that people find compelling,” said Marc LeVarn, president and co-owner of Vail International Gallery.

Cong, an up-and-coming artist from Denver, is visiting the gallery Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibit of new, large-scale works, along with smaller oil paintings and drawings, will be on display through Feb. 27.

The painter, whose given name is actually Cong Lu, came to the United States from Shanghai China when he was 11 years old. Although he's only been painting for about nine years, he is already regarded as one of the most important young artists in the American Southwest, Levarn said.

“I look at art all the time so when I see something original and well done, I know it immediately. Lu Cong's art is evolving, but if you look at the paintings he's done in the past five years the overall body of work is very well defined thematically and in terms of technique is improving from what was already a very high level.”

Searching for ‘a certain sensibility'

Cong is best known for his paintings of women and his compositions often depict females looking directly out from the painting toward the viewer.

Over the years, Cong has worked with more than 100 models, but very few of those end up the subject in one of his major paintings.

“I look for a certain sensibility in my models — a softness, almost delicacy,” he said.

“The conventional saying is always the artist captures a model. I think it's more I have something I want to show and express and very few models can help me say those things. And when I do find them, they're such inspiration and muse to me, I can let my style out.”

Within seconds of meeting a model Cong knows if they have what he's looking for — or not. And if they don't, Cong says it's inevitably a very awkward experience.

“When you look at the pictures, they're all made up. I see something in there I could work with. Then they show up. You know the photos are all Photoshopped so sometimes they're a different size, skin tone, hair color. Then I just have to be very diplomatic. Most of the time, I do what I say I'm going to do — take some head shots. But right away I know it's not going to work.”

While Cong works with mostly female models, he says he does try to find more male models.

“There's just a lot more women that are models, and the men who do model, very few fit the description that I'm looking for.”

Funky details

It's important that Cong find the perfect subject as he'll be spending a lot of time with their image. Some of the more elaborate, four-foot-by-six-foot paintings can take anywhere from one to three months to complete.

While Cong's work is realistic, its also fairly stylized, he said. For example, the women's eyes often look bigger than they might in real life.

“It's not that I go measure, and make them big, its just something that happens. Whenever I try too hard to make something have a formula, they end up like caricatures,” Cong said. “But I like to just look at them like I'm just painting them like they're in front of me. If I do some funky things — eyes get bigger, certain things get streamlined — I just let that happen.”

And its those details that distinguish Cong's work from that of other portrait artists.

“I do have a sensibility and style that I feel is pretty unique and other people respond to. But its nothing I can tell you how it happens, it's just something that comes out in my work.”

And it's that style that causes people in the Vail International Gallery to stop and stare at his images.

High Life Editor Caramie Schnell can be reached at 970-748-2984 or cschnell@vaildaily.com.