Original Black Iron Painting
The 48" x 24" black iron paintings emphasize the dramatic flow and texture of the materials descending, reminiscent of the endless waterfalls cascading from the heights of the Columbia River Gorge.
The powdered black iron oxide used in my black ceramic glaze is also used to create my paintings. I mix the iron with water in a variety of dilutions from mostly water to an almost paste-like quality. I then paint by pouring the iron onto wood panel that has been primed, sanded and prepped with absorbent ground. During the process, I am responding to the shapes, horizon lines, and sedimentary lines that naturally form, much like fractals, branches of a tree, or a root structure. The painting must stay wet while I work in layers and is sprayed with varnish before an isolation coat of acrylic medium is applied. They are finished with a matte UV protectant varnish. The paintings are textured and tactile and explore similar form, edge, and three-dimensionality as in my ceramic work. I am drawn to a sense of timelessness, the origin story of a stone, a glacier, or cracked desert earth - something that roots us in our existence beyond what humans have constructed.
