Original Painting, Element Series: Black Iron 29-2
48"h x 24"w x 1.75"d
Black Iron Oxide on prepared wood panel, sealed with archival UV protective varnish.
Black Iron 29-1 and 29-2 were painted consecutively to create a consistency in form and feel that makes them a perfect paired diptych (see photos).
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 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.
