Artist Christopher May (my husband) is going to be part of an exhibit opening next Saturday evening at The Seen Gallery in Decatur. He has been working in encaustic (beeswax) mediums for the past few years, usually incorporating his photographs or other materials.Encaustic work often has a layered appearance, a variety of materials can be “trapped” within the many layers of wax. The end result of many of Chris’ works is the smooth surface appearance which looks almost like enamel; but the artwork is actually fragile and soft. I love the smell of the melting beeswax in the house when he is working in our basement.
I have not met the other artist, Amelia Netto, but from what I have seen on her website, she combines screen-printing and embroidery in her textiles pieces. Hers and Christopher’s work both have a similar visual quality because of the processes of layering and should show very nicely together.
Here a an except of a biography I wrote for Chris’ book of recent artwork which can be downloaded from Lulu:
Chris’ artistic experiences have culminated in a series of encaustic pieces incorporating psuedo-medical science, digital imagery, organic shapes and textures, and natural and man-made materials melted within layers of wax and color. These pieces are a unique exploration of the relationship of nature, beauty and aesthetics with technology and science.
Wheeling in the Widening Gyre, 24x24 encaustic
Chris and Amelia open their show, Transitions at The Seen Gallery on Saturday, March 26 at 7pm. If you are in Atlanta that night, stop in and say hello. If you can’t make it on opening night, be sure to see the work during The Seen Gallery’s normal hours – the work will be on display until April 24th.
We visited Paris over Christmas break. (My first time in Europe!) It was cold and some of the security lines outside the museums took hours, but we still managed to fill the week with art-viewing. We visited Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée d’Orsay, Musée de l’Orangerie. Sadly, Musée National Picasso was closed. (And there is so much more to see!) We walked though all the paintings rooms and some of the sculpture at the Musée du Louvre. Here are some details of the curious creatures included in some of the paintings:
I covered several large canvases with base coats today. Check out the yellow ones; I painted them with Indian Yellow. It is a vibrant transparent hue, more expensive than a lot of paint colors. Legend says that Indian Yellow used to be made from the urine of cows fed only on mango leaves in rural India. I learned a lot of interesting things about paint pigments (the true histories and legends) from a fascinating book, Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay.
Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
We spent the beautiful day gallery hopping through Atlanta. It was our first time to two galleries: Tanner Hill Gallery and Austin Hill Art. On to other galleries, Chris Verenes‘s photographs at Marcia Wood gave me twinge of nostalgia for my early childhood in rural upstate NY in the early 1970s, before a lot of the old people died. At Alan Avery, I loved the mix of realism, expressionism, surrealism in Michele Mikesell‘s paintings. Avery instantly pegged us as artists. It’s more than how we were dressed (or not dressed) We are always looking at the art really close up. He said artists look at the work “as is you’re trying to get up into the painting.” Timothy Tew had also identified us artists before for the same reason. I have to do more people watching at galleries! Other galleries we stopped at: Mason Murer, Kiang, Matre, Jennifer Schwartz, Sandler Hudson, Atlanta Photography Group, Pryor Fine Arts, Thomas Deans Fine Art. We topped the night off at the opening at The Seen Gallery in Decatur and eats at The Brick Store Pub.
My favorite work that we saw to day was by Cara Enteles at Emily Amy Gallery. (We have really liked the space of this gallery ever since it has–it is light, airy and very friendly.) Enteles work is very beautiful, though its intention “explores predator/prey relationships within nature as well as the effects of man’s destructive actions on the natural world.” Go check it out!
Bees 30" x 22.5" Watercolor and mixed media on paper
C-CAPP is holding its 3rd annual “It’s About Time” art auction on October 26th at Ikea. Through Atlanta Gallery Association (AGA), Chris and I are participating in the event by finishing Ikea clocks! Art clocks will on display for early bidding at AGA galleries throughout Atlanta this Saturday, August 21st during AGA’s CityWide Art Walk. Chris’ and mine will be at The Seen Gallery in Decatur.
G-CAPP art auction clocks by Christopher May and Denise Wellenstein
All the magazine layout design I do for Flavors has prepared me to design books also! I just designed a book of my paintings completed from 2008 to 2010 and had it printed through Lulu.
The book is mostly a way for me to visually keep track of all the paintings I have done. (Especially since I may never again see some of the paintings that have been sold.) The books make great gifts, but I can’t afford to buy one for everyone I know…so…I made the books publicly for sale through Lulu for anyone who would like to have one!
Chris and I went gallery hopping today. We found amazing installations at KIANG GALLERY. I don’t just freely give out kudos, so you know I really liked it:
COLOR Color is very intuitive for me and is mainly what draws me to making oil paintings.
MEDIUM In the medium of oil, I find the vibrancy and versatility to portray colors as I love to see them.
DESIGN My paintings are a process of exploration of color. However, I rely on design elements, shapes, composition, contrast, texture to give depth, character, and energy to the colors.
BEGINNING I rarely begin a painting with much more than a vague idea of what I where I want to end up. From beginning to end, the painting evolves as a non-verbal dialogue improvised between me and the canvas. What I see on the canvas suggests what changes I make next. I spontaneously choose colors, alternating between transparent glazes and heavier layers of paint. I experiment with different hues and saturations and how they blend with one another to create transparency and solidness. Though I work abstractly, I like to create illusions of near and far through shadow and light. Each painting is a progression of many layers of experimentation.
ENDING I work on a painting until I don’t know what to do next. If I really love it as it is, I call it finished. Otherwise, I’ll come back to it later to continue or rework. However, I would not really consider a piece complete if it were never shared with an audience. To me, the painting comes truly alive only when a connection is established with a viewer through the shapes, colors, and texture of the painting.
NAMING The titles of the paintings are intended to hint at an element of what the work suggests to me when it is finished but should not be taken as a clue to “meaning.” There are no intentional messages or statements in the paintings.
