Hot Wax Treatment

Reflections 21, encaustic painting, Leslie Neumann

Encaustic (n.)

1. A paint consisting of pigment mixed with beeswax and fixed with heat after its application.
2. The art of painting with this substance.
3. A painting produced with the use of this substance.
[Latin encausticus, from Greek enkaustikos, from enkaiein, enkau-, to paint in encaustic : en-, in; see en-² + kaiein, to burn.]

I first became acquainted with Leslie Neumann’s encaustic paintings in 2004, when we exhibited in adjoining galleries at the Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg. While not a stranger to the hot wax process, I quickly realized what deep beauty can be achieved by the hand of a master.

Leslie’s landscapes have a softness of form with layers of subtle transparency which give her compositions depth and perspective. This is painting as a window, drawing the viewer into a rich and luminous other world.

On a subsequent visit to her Aripeka home and studio, I learned more about Leslie’s exacting technique, as well as her commitment to preserving Florida’s unique wild habitats. From her third floor studio balcony, we looked out over an almost pristine coastal estuary turned golden by the setting sun. One could not ask for a more inspiring setting in which to make art.

Leslie and eight other artists using the encaustic method will be featured in “Wax: Medium Meets Message,” an exhibition at the Morean which opens this Friday, 5-7 pm with an artist’s talk at 5 pm.
www.moreanartscenter.org 

Image courtesy of the artist

Second Saturday Gallery Walk

It was a dark and sticky night in St. Petersburg. Rain rolled off windows like sweat on a bottle of Jagermeister. Fortified souls braved the sauna of Central Avenue to take in Saturday Night’s Gallery Walk.

Over at the Morean Arts Center, art lovers gathered to see new works by Denis Gaston. While goth girls slouched by outside on their way to the State Theatre, the intimate Gallery setting provided solace to another group seeking culture and Chianti.

Late reports indicate a good time was had by all.

Tar Baby at Morean Arts Center

The sad disaster of BP’s Gulf Oil Spew affected me so much that I created a piece of statement art – a not so gentle reminder of the seemingly endless ability of humans to delude ourselves.

In the painting’s initial stages, I thought of one of art’s most powerful statement pieces – Guernica, Picasso’s masterful reaction to the Nazi bombing of the Spanish city in 1937.

As the oil catastrophe played out in the media, viewers were confronted daily with a stream of disturbing photographs. One image that kept popping into my mind was that of tar balls. The thought of hundreds of these black blobs washing up on beaches became a compelling picture that ultimately led to the central theme I sought – The Tar Baby.

The story of the Tar Baby is well known in American literature through the writing of author Joel Chandler Harris. In his popular Uncle Remus series, Harris drew on old African-American songs and folklore to write about the foibles of human nature.

In Br’er Rabbit and the Tar Baby, the trickster Br’er Fox takes a lump of tar and puts clothes on it. He intends to fool Br’er Rabbit but ends up getting tricked himself.

There is a lesson in the Tar Baby that still rings true today. In our stubborn will to continue an increasingly unsustainable lifestyle, we end up fooling ourselves.

The Tar Baby and nineteen other new works will be on exhibition at Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg.

Click this link to view more about the show: Denis Gaston: Morean Arts Center Featured Artist

Neverne Covington at Morean Arts Center

Neverne Covington, long one of the area's most respected artists, is featured this month in an exhibition at Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg.

I have always appreciated Neverne's deft drawing style, an ability she has now expanded to print making. Below is an excerpt from the exhibition web site.

"Neverne Covington's drawings, prints, paintings and sculptures explore childhood, language, landscape, memory, and the Gothic south. Her work has been exhibited at the Tampa Museum of Art, the Brevard Museum of Art, the State Capital and various venues throughout Florida and at the Museum of the South in Alabama.

She recently completed a twenty-foot mural commissioned for the new All Children's Hopital in St. Peteresburg, FL. She is the recipient of three artist enhancement grants from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and an artist resource grant from the Pineiias County Arts Council."

(photos courtesy of Neverne Covington and Morean Arts Center)