CURRENT EXHIBITION: ONE, TWO, SKIDOO
Each of these paintings was started by an artist and abandoned. One way or another the works came to my studio to be finished. After developing a sense of the painting, absorbing, I start from what's there and being to paint, always with the freedom to change, add or invent, to make a new, beguiling, complete artwork.
TWO ARTISTS - ONE PAINTING
ONCE RUTH LEVINE GAVE ME an oil pastel painting on masonite that she had given up on, saying, "Have fun with this." She had scraped, reworked, scraped. After considering the panel for a while, I set to work, each scrape and new mark responding to the last to build a new image. I collaged in heads of Queen Elizabeth and Einstein. She loved it. A double universe..
I was given some rolled up canvases marked 'unfinished' from Patricia Segnan's studio when it was closed in the 90's. Every once in a while I would unroll them and wonder about 'finishing' them. The marks and color areas were very-very pale in comparison to the 'finished' ones that Pat stretched and exhibited. Finally I felt I had a sense of the atmosphere, pulled out my oil pastels, oil paint and solvent and carefully began to see what would develop.
In 2019 I was walking up a hill in the neighborhood and saw some frames and two canvases in sacks for the trash pick-up the next day. One canvas was a picture of a dog painted from a photograph, It had an almost appealing expression and was wearing a coat. The other, unremarkable, was a herringbone pattern in several shades of pale and iridescent blues- like a color test. I went to the door and asked the neighbor about recycling the materials and she agreed. The composition of the dog painting was not bad but the colors were killing it, so it got a make-over. The frames were recycled. And the herringbone became something else entirely.

MEANWHILE,
Andy Snow wasn't sure what to do with this unfinished canvas by LILA SNOW. It came to my studio in February 2021, half painted and half raw, presenting a new challenge. Looking closely you will see Lila's writing throughout. Towards the bottom she wrote, "BASQUIAT," the name of an artist who developed a graffiti painting style. The darkest blue in the middle was there.
It took a while to decide the orientation of the canvas. A good deal of the marking was on raw areas, so to keep these marks meant thin washed/glazed areas rather than opaque color, all in harmony with the dark original turquoise.
This is how it came out.
MEANWHILE,
Andy Snow wasn't sure what to do with this unfinished canvas by LILA SNOW. It came to my studio in February 2021, half painted and half raw, presenting a new challenge. Looking closely you will see Lila's writing throughout. Towards the bottom she wrote, "BASQUIAT," the name of an artist who developed a graffiti painting style. The darkest blue in the middle was there.
It took a while to decide the orientation of the canvas. A good deal of the marking was on raw areas, so to keep these marks meant thin washed/glazed areas rather than opaque color, all in harmony with the dark original turquoise.
This is how it came out.
During a visit with Zinnia in the summer of 2002, she showed me two photo collages with acrylic on artboards that she had framed. Despite sponge painting the dark frames she was dissatisfied. I suggested, if she was willing, a collaboration. Instead of deep-sixing them, she handed them over. I collaged and boldly painted.