Robin Rose on view D.C.

top:
Conspire, 2006
encaustic on linen on
aluminum hexcel panel
24" x 18"

bottom:
Hiatus, 2006
encaustic on linen on
aluminum hexcel panel
72" x 48"



(disregard the white panels on either side of these images.)

Yesterday I rode the Chinatown bus into Washington DC to deliver a painting to the Whitman-Walker Clinic on S Street NW. (There is an Art for Life Auction, sponsored by this clinic on November 17.) Anyone who has been reading this blog for long knows of my frustrations with UPS and FED EX so I decided to spend the funds I would use to ship the art on the bus fare and to take the day to look at art instead of worry whether my painting would make it to DC in one piece. It was a good move, all in all.

I regret missing a few openings in Richmond but I had an unexpected meeting with my muse at the Robin Rose show at Hemphill Fine Arts. I read the show was very good here but when I walked into the gallery during the middle of an Artist Talk I knew that my timing was fortutious.

There has been a great deal of encaustic work shown in Virginia during the past ten years. Its the THING nowadays but I've never seen anything that comes close to Robin Rose's work. He's the master who studied with the master and when he is working the medium disappears and it becomes pure expression. He explained his desire to be a master of his materials so that they would become invisible and he could focus on expression first. This is evident in the work which comes as close to sublime as anything I've ever seen in quite a while.

He succeeds what others attempt. His success looks effortless and that is why his paintings stand out during a time when the artworld embraces novelty.


Fathom, 2006
encaustic on linen on
aluminum hexcel panel
24" x 18"


I made the rounds after that: Adamson, Plan B, Irvine. There was work worth seeing everywhere but nothing hit me like Rose's work. I normally spend my time visiting the museums on the mall but this go I decided to see the Aboriginal Paintings at the National Museum of Women in the Arts since it closes today. I know many painters that should see this show. They would love it. I first heard about it on NPR when I was in Paris and it was worth the wait.

The National Portrait Gallery has also reopened with their biannual Portrait Competition. I wasn't impressed by the work on the website so I am glad I had the time to see the show. Only three of the painters who made it into this exhibition (4000 entries) work with acrylic paint which I found to be very interesting since I can't work with oil paint. It is still the preferred medium by people who paint portraits. You can see the facimile's of the winning portraits by clicking on this link.

The NPG closes at 7pm so I had some time to shop and eat before the CT bus left D.C. at 10pm... never mind the fact that it was supposed to leave at 8:30! I enjoyed being in DC on a Friday night. Washington's Chinatown is a different place than it was in 1987 or so when I first met with Y. David Chung in his studio there.