Garyrea: Current Paintings

Gary Rea

Current Paintings

These are paintings from my current series on paper in acrylic with alcohol. All are executed with a vinyl scraper in thin, transparent layers. Alcohol is splashed on, at intervals, and as a final embellishment, for textural effects and to reveal layers of color beneath. Sometimes, the alcohol also makes subtle color changes, especially in any black layers, which may show up as a warm grey or even brown. The medium-bodied acrylic paint is applied directly to the paper right from the bottle without any added water and then quickly spread with the scraper and blotted with a paper towel. This enables immediate drying of the paint so that new layers can be added without waiting for paint to dry. By spreading the paint thinly and then blotting, transparent layers of color are established and this leads to optical blending of colors that overlap each other. No actual mixing of paint occurs. Rather, the technique produces a result not unlike the effect of printing, and all texture is purely optical, as well. The paintings are, of course, non-objective. There is no reference to anything in the real world intended or implied. As a further removal from any real world references, I never title my work. I find titles to be leading or misleading the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind, steering them toward preconceived conclusions about the work, and I have no such intent. No meaning is either suggested or implicit and thus, the viewer is free to engage the work without any pretentions getting in the way.

Gary Rea November 2016

Acrylic and alcohol on 140 lb watercolor paper, 8x8, November 2016

Acrylic and alcohol on 110 lb card stock, 8.5 x 11, November 2016

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