Ryan Hastings Paintings for sale
Winter 2026
The body is mine. I took the first nude photos of myself around 2002, on the farm in Alabama. I was still pretty religious, from an evangelical background, and it seemed like the wrong thing to do. Others shouldn’t see these. It felt dangerous just to have them. I kept taking them anyway. I think most people still don’t want to see the photos. A painting is more acceptable, so I paint them.
Open any painting to see its process: the photos, the iPad sketches and the false starts.
I always put color down first, feel it out. Then hunt through my photos for a body to put on it. Almost like the body is just another material.
Benjamin refers to the paint. I chose the Benjamin Moore 2024 color trends palette, got gallon buckets of each color, then did all the paintings with the same color scheme. Ceiling paint, specifically. It’s made to lifelessly fill a ceiling no one looks at. We used to paint frescos on ceilings. Now we watch TikToks.
Some were a morning ritual, a few shots before the shower, when no one was seeing me naked and I wanted a record. Others I set up on purpose, like the ones in Puerto Escondido. Taking them still feels exhilarating, and I look back at them like treasures.
My body is always available. I don’t have to book a model or find out what they’re comfortable with. It's whatever I am comfortable with.
Most of the time a naked man shows up as a joke or a threat. I want it to just be a body.
I want this to feel normal.
Interested in one of these paintings, or a work not listed here? Please reach out!
Get in touch
Ryan Hastings
