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Encaustic painting involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. (Courtesy photo)
ROCHESTER - The Rochester Museum of Fine Arts will present "Diane Bowie Zaitlin: Revelations" at the Carnegie Gallery at the Rochester Public Library beginning Saturday and through Feb. 3.
The exhibition brings together two unique bodies of work in a concert of color and gesture. Selected works previously shown in a solo exhibition at the Maine Jewish Museum in 2015 is a collection of encaustic pieces. Inherent in the encaustic process for Zaitlin is the addition and subtraction of layers of beeswax and resin with drawing, which, Carl Little, in his review of the exhibition in Art New England, observed, produces "all-over paintings alive with marks" that "offer evidence of Zaitlin's mastery of the media and materials, not to mention her skill at presenting richly conceived imagery that follows you out the door."
In contrast, works included in Zaitlin's exhibition at the June Fitzpatrick Gallery in Portland in early 2016 are acrylic and graphite quickly worked on Bristol board. These gestural "drawings" left an immediate impression on Daniel Kany in his review of the exhibition for the Portland Press Herald where he compared them to "the acrylic billows of Morris Louis, Andrew Wyeth's ghostly white curtains, Willem de Kooning's early curving forms only executed in his black and white 'Attic Series' style and, more than anything else, Jackson Pollock if only he had survived that wreck."
Zaitlin's work involves layering of imagery and marks. The artist typically starts with writing and drawing that sets the tone for the piece. She works intuitively, creating a give and take between layers; a revealing and obscuring of fragments of phrases, marks and patterns that suggest a story of their own.
The Carnegie Gallery in the Rochester Public Library is located at 65 South Main Street. It is open Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 9 p.m. to 4 p.m. Visit dianebowiezaitlin.com for more about the artist and rochestermfa.org for more about the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts.
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