A Gallery, Special Exhibition

A Gallery, on Commercial Street in Provincetown, will hold a special exhibition from June 1 to 3, 2012 to  celebrate the Sixth International Encaustic Conference (see previous post). Eight artists who use wax will be exhibiting work selected by gallery owner Marian Peck.  She was  "looking for a reductive sensibility, simplified images, and a cool palette." I sent in some images of recent work and she selected "Smoke and Ice", that had been completed in 2011.

"Smoke and Ice", Encaustic, graphite, collaged drawings, dried leaves on panel, 24" x 24" 2011

"Smoke and Ice"  is made with oil, encaustic, pigment stick, graphite, and dried leaves on collaged drawings which have been mounted to a 24" square panel. Almost monochromatic, patches of blacks, greens and deep reds peek through from the underlayers. The movement of the wax, melted over drawn line and dried leaves, brings to mind smoky tendrils and the icy surface of a frozen pond.

A Gallery
192 Commercial Street
Provincetown, MA
"Wax"
June 1 - 3, 2012
www.agalleryart.com

Come to Provincetown in June!

Just heard today that two recent paintings have been juried into a show this June called Confluence: The Embrace of Water and Light at the Kobalt Gallery on Commercial Street in Provincetown.

The theme the show is built around is this:
"For our annual juried show we invite registered conferees [of the Sixth International Encaustic Conference, more below] to consider the watery vastness into which Provincetown is set: the calm Massachusetts Bay in the crook of the arm of the Cape, and the roiling Atlantic that spirals out beyond it. For a hundred years artists have come to Provincetown to paint the ocean that enfolds it, at high tide and low, and to capture the exquisite light that hovers just below the horizon, illuminates the shore and bathes the dunes.
We challenge you to draw inspiration from this embrace of water and light—realistically, abstractly or somewhere in between. The luminosity and fluidity of encaustic would seem especially suited to the challenge.
If you would prefer, you may draw your inspiration from a different ocean with its own special light, or from the sense of “ocean” or from a sense memory of water itself: traveling through it or over it, perhaps even flying above it." --Francine D'Olimpio, owner Kobalt Gallery

Tidal Pool I, encaustic on panel, 12" x 12", 2012

Tidal Pool II, encaustic on panel, 12" x 12", 2012

These two pieces are about the view of the ocean around your toes as the tide moves in and out. I'm intrigued with the amount of life that thrives in these places. coping with heat and cold, wet and dry, hanging on for dear life as the water rushes out. The forms the seaweed makes is just so gorgeous.  I've been fortunate to make many visits to the oceans at the Cape, but it's the rocky edge of the world at Two Lights in Maine that sparked these.

The exhibit is concurrent with The Sixth Encaustic Conference, organized by the indefatigable Joanne Mattera together with Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill director Cherie Mittenthal. This will be the second year the Conference is in Provincetown; it's a 3 day watch, look, learn, talk, and network fest for artists who use wax in their work, with days and days of pre- and post-conference workshop intensives.

Much of Provincetown takes part as well. Fifteen local galleries are exhibiting the work of more than 110 artists working with wax. If you're curious about wax and encaustic, this is the time and place to come and find out more.

Confluence: The Embrace of Water and Light
June 1 - 12, 2012
Juror: Francine D’Olimpio
Kobalt Gallery, Provincetown
Opening reception June 1 from 7-9pm.