The paintings are a combination of addition and subtraction. This shows part of the subtraction (scraping) of the process
Artist Statement
Each time I start a new painting, it is like I am learning to paint for the first time. This creates a feeling of exploration and discovery that allows life and excitement to creep into each painting in its own, unique way.
As I work, multiple layers of paint create texture and movement on the canvas that lead me forward. It’s this dialog that determines the direction in which my general idea or sense or emotion will move. I find my own creative process reflected in Richard Diebenkorn’s words: “I can never accomplish what I want. Only what I would have wanted had I thought of it in the first place.”
What we see on a canvas is determined not by the reality exhibited on the canvas but by the emotions and experiences of the viewer. The question is not what we look at but what we see.
Drip cloth and retired Soldiers, empty — used painting medium bottles.
More About my Work
My paintings often include active brush strokes and quiet glazes that, combined, depict landscapes surrounded by abstract imagery. This reflects the way I see the world, whether I’m hiking through a redwood forest in California, walking down a crowded street in San Francisco or Ouagadougou, floating down a river in Belize, or watching the sand dunes shift in Oman.
Although being able to go into my studio has helped get me through the uncertainty of our current time, there are some days when it becomes hard to forget what is going on in the world around us. On those days, I find myself puttering rather than painting. One day I picked up the 2 year old drip cloth that sits under the easel where I pour glazes on my paintings. It morphed into an installation with the bottles I have kept my medium in while painting over the last 20 years. As they become too clogged to use, they are retired and become my "retired soldiers". They are now an army of 14.
5' 1/2" me working on a 5' 8" painting – Great fun!.
About
Maxine Solomon is an oil painter who has many solo shows and awards to her credit, extensive curatorial experience, and has conducted painting workshops in the United States and abroad.
Solomon uses both additive and subtractive processes to create a heavily textured and tortured surface, often obliterating and sometimes delineating the subject matter. The resulting canvases sometimes contain as many as 30 layers of paint. Her images are drawn from her experiences working and traveling throughout the world. As she states, “I think, react and speak through my paintings. The paint itself becomes my partner – its texture, its vibrancy, its very nature becomes a crucial component, enabling me to process and speak of that which I see in our shared world.”