A ROCK-INSPIRED OIL PAINTING by Tom Gaines, currently on display at the Harlow Gallery in Hallowell.
The Harlow Gallery, located at 160 Water Street in Hallowell, presents “Rocks & Eggs,” an exhibition featuring Tom Gaines’ rock-inspired series of oil paintings paired with Gail Savitz’ series of ceramic egg forms. “Rocks & Eggs” is on view through Sept. 3, with an opening reception on Friday from 5-8pm. Both the exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
The intent of the show is to allow the viewer to experience the work of a two dimensional painter and a three dimensional artist who share similar senses with color, surface, shape and scale. The distinction of the two bodies of work is that the painter expresses his ideas with movement of paint on a surface with images that are created through a series of layered distinct shapes, seemingly random color and the breaking down surfaces through erosion.
Tom Gaines’ series of rock paintings and Savitz’ high temperature stoneware sculptures reference each other in many ways. The shapes that Gaines paints are similar to Savitz’, the works playing off each other in both form and palette. Both are earth-inspired. Gaines forms, muted tones, and textures recall the minerals and chemicals Savitz uses in her glazes which, when fired to the high stoneware temperature of 2240 degrees, take on the colors of earth’s palette of cobalt, copper, iron browns, grays and whites.
Tom Gaines of Belfast is a contemporary oil painter.
“The subject matter in the earlier more representational work is recognizable, but it has strong abstract considerations,” Gaines said. “The more recent paintings, ‘The Rock Series,’ are even more abstract … enigmatic in composition and more complex in surface and color. The surface appears eroded to reveal multiple layers of subjectively selected colors.”
Like Gaines who works in a series, Gail Savitz likes to work in editions.
“I make both functional and oneof a-kind pieces, using high temperature stoneware clay,” Savitz said. “Whether it is a wheel-thrown bowl or complex hand-built sculpture, I collaborate with the clay, seeking to reveal the essence, balance and truth of each piece. Glazing and firing is a long process with hazards along the way. Even after years of working in my studio I find glazing a challenge. There are plenty of unexpected and stunning outcomes and well as disasters. Slight differences in glaze viscosity, clay body, layering of glazes add up to pieces coming out of the kiln that surprise. Some welcome and others not. All are part of the challenges that bring me back to my studio.”
The Harlow Gallery is located at 160 Water St., Hallowell. For more information, call 622-2813.
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