"Begin Again" Contemporary Abstract Acrylic Painting

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Begin Again :: 36"x72" :: acrylic on canvas :: finished with a high gloss varnish

MEL REA BIOGRAPHY

My art … Read more Begin Again :: 36"x72" :: acrylic on canvas :: finished with a high gloss varnish

MEL REA BIOGRAPHY

My art education and career started as a clay sculptor. The tactile interaction and dimension of clay held great appeal. I did large figurative work with details that included eyelashes, finger nails, and ear lobes. As a younger artist, I challenged myself with my scale, details, and technical boundaries. However, after nearly 17 years with clay, I felt my artistic aesthetic shifting towards a more minimalistic philosophy. It was during this period that I discovered a small batch of beeswax left behind from the last of my grandfather’s beehives.
My grandfather spent his childhood in Russia where he was inspired to build an apiary farm. His dream came true as an adult in the States where he built and farmed his own set of beehives. My own name is translated into the Greek word for “honeybee.” As a young girl, I felt such a sense of peace walking amongst my grandfather’s hives. I developed a very deep connection, respect, and appreciation for Mother Nature. Like many artists, She is a constant source of inspiration. That old batch of beeswax led my transition into encaustic painting (painting with molten beeswax).
The transition from a clay artist to an encaustic artist felt very natural. The soft satin finish of the beeswax replaced my clay glazes, and the ability to incise elegant, clean lines satisfied my need for a sculptural surface. The surface appeared lit from within in a way I’ve not witnessed with any other medium. With encaustic painting, light refracts and bounces between layers of wax. Painting with beeswax has an elusive quality I’m grateful to have experienced.
As someone who is committed to being in a constant state of evolution, I’ve recently expanded from encaustics into acrylic on canvas. I’m attracted to the drying pace and application versatility of acrylics. I enjoy applying the paint in a variety of ways whether it is to brush, splash, drip, spray, or scrape. This diverse play of paint creates a lively energy to the composition. I tend to gravitate to paint in a liquid form. When splashing the paint across the surface of the canvas, it feels captured in a state of motion. My paintings are an abstracted assembles of colorful lines and shapes that float and intersect in multiple sheer layers.
The last of my explorations of varying mediums has been my works on paper, but this is not to suggest that paper is last of my loves. Quite the contrary, no other medium has felt as natural and intuitive as working with paper. It is by far my greatest love. It is the softest and most vulnerable medium to work with and unforgiving at any moment. Handmade paper in particular is unpredictable and moody. Papers’ need to be framed and encapsulated in a box makes it exude the quality of a delicate treasure. I find working with paper most rewarding. I’ve not committed to working with any specific medium with paper; however, I most frequently utilize ink, acrylic, and powdered graphite.
As time carries on, this simple sentiment conveys my relationship with art; “We were together, I forget the rest,” Walt Whitman. See less