People

By Guy D. Garcia

His ability to flesh out a character in a few deft strokes has made him one of Hollywood's most versatile leading men. But as his paintings attest, Gene Hackman, 55, enjoys working on canvas almost as much as on celluloid. During the 1950s the actor first took up the brush as an art student fresh out of the Marines and resumed in earnest about eight years ago. Though he finds painting "more serene" than acting, and has more than 100 oil landscapes and portraits to his credit, Hackman has neither the desire nor the time to mount a gallery show. He has completed three about-to-be-released films, Target, Twice in a Lifetime and Power, and will soon begin Hoosiers, about high school basketball in Indiana. With all that performing, Hackman prefers to keep his painterly pursuits private. Says he: "Maybe I'm afraid that if I start to exhibit, it'll become too much like work."