Santa Monica Sun
Brad Noble truly believes in art imitating life. In fact, at first glance is photorealism work looks more like photographs than paintings. His chosen subject is the human body, and his delicate brushwork and warm colors give the impression that the exposed skin (of which there is much in Noble’s work) of the models would be warm to the touch. These are not idealized, smooth as silk bodies we see on Noble’s canvases. No, indeed. To be human is to be flawed, and the artist allows each scar, mole and patch of cellulite to be exposed. The overall impression is one of truth, as if honesty could be portrayed as a physical attribute rather than one of character.Look carefully at “Lessons,” a portrait of a female nude with her hair wrapped turban style in a striped towel, as if she has just emerged from the bath. She sits on a small stool within a circle of light, and at the edge of the darkness are a teacher’s blackboard and a piece of chalk. Is she teacher? Student? It matters not Noble seems to say. What matters is that she is essentially human, flesh and blood.

Raechel Donahue, Santa Monica Sun, October 1999