Artwork

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FRANCES McGUIRE

Covid came. Trump was still President. I read the news all day long. I get the paper New York Times; I get it on the phone. I work in a studio in Yonkers. At first I kept going to my studio because it is isolated but the hallways are not. So I came home to work. Back to the southern facing windowed small room where I had painted for years alone.

I wanted to read the children’s book Madeline again. I wanted to listen to Penny Lane. I was looking for the post war Europe optimism or at least through the lens of what I thought was European post war optimism which was the cultural influence of my childhood with the exception being the Oz books written by L. Frank Baum who was an American.

I wanted simplicity and innocence. I wanted out.

So I let go. I just started painting things that I wanted to paint again anyway.

DANIELLE MULCAHY

PAINTING : YOUR DAY IS MY NIGHT

JUSTEN AHREN

Crawl Inside The Trees To Sleep

WENDY WELDON
Painting

ARTIST STATEMENT 2020

My process in the studio begins with spontaneity. I don’t plan what the painting will look like. I begin by drawing shapes and brushing on lots of rich color. I add lines and change up the values and hues. The process is intuitive.

Recognizable images emerge. Rectangular shapes sometimes resembling barns, circular stone shapes, architectural elements, and birds all play a role. These initial shapes may disappear and reappear throughout the process. Recently, these objects are buried in layers of paint and gel, leaving a distant memory of anything recognizable. The energy of these objects remains in the painting however! At some point in the process there is a conscious composition, the work becomes more deliberate. I add layers of paint and gels, I sand parts, creating textures and depth, opacity and transparency.

My goal is to make the painting convincing. I want a peacefulness to the work and at the same time I want tension and strength. I love to paint and I want to share my joy with the viewer. Most importantly, I want my work to be original and fresh. I strive to give the viewer a new way to look at the world. These days with the pandemic touching the lives of millions throughout the world, I find fear, sadness, compassion and distress governing my process. My paintings start with chaos. I vacillate whether I want to leave the disorder and confusion or whether I will bring in a sense of peace and quiet. My work is a way of trying to understand the world.

BARBARA KASSEL
Painting

The Plague, oil on linen on panel, 40″ x 30″, 2020

I’ve been asked why I paint what I paint. I think it is more a matter of what emerges than what I plan. My impulses are more metaphorical than realistic and I often mix various landscapes, interiors and still lives. I like to combine imagery from the past such as Italian frescoes and the ancient mosaics of Pompeii with contemporary objects and locations. Working this way allows a fluid play between objects and their surroundings. I hope to establish a dynamic balance between the aesthetic and the emotional in my paintings.

LYNN CHRISTOFFERS
Photography