Miles O'Brien Bathed in Red Alert Lighting — Print & Oil Painting

One red lamp, somewhere off to the left and low. Everything in the picture is a consequence of it: the near half of the face is washed crimson, the ridged chair back beside him burns scarlet, and a horizontal bar of red light glows on the wall behind, while the far half of the head keeps its ordinary colour.

It should be said that this is a photographic frame rather than a painted work. The focus falls off softly behind the shoulder, there is film grain in the shadows, and the compression is that of a long lens on a set. The collection holds several images like it and this one is unusually well lit.

He sits turned away from us, looking off to the left at something below eye level, one shoulder forward. The eyebrows are level, the mouth is closed, and the expression is not alarm but patience: the face of a man who has heard this one before and is waiting for someone to tell him what broke. The tunic reads crimson under that light, with a small metal insignia catching a hard highlight at the chest, and a pale console edge intrudes at the bottom corner. It comes from our Star Trek collection, next to The DS9 Crew Standing Beneath the Station where he is one face among many.