Gallery Assistant Jackie Soto speaks with artist Elaine Florimonte about her art and her solo exhibition Lost & Found.
JS: While we were both sitting in the gallery together, I had the amazing opportunity to talk with Elaine about her solo exhibition, her art style, and about teaching. Here are some snippets of our conversation.
JS: How do you approach the use of color in your work?
EF: I tend to use the same palette in most of my works. You can see in the smaller pieces that I have that there is some inclusion of new colors, but the old ones will make their way in. But I just gravitate towards these grays, and it’s so much easier to use them than to fight it.
JS: Could you describe your painting process?
EF: I begin new work with intuitive drawing and blocking in with color. I really just start painting and let the process guide me. Sometimes I have an idea of what the composition will be, but more often than not, I just paint and look.
JS: How do you form an idea, and then transport it to the canvas?
EF: I am inspired by nature and the things that happen during any given day. I see light patterns or proportions that inspired me. Sometimes I grab them with my phone and use bits and pieces in my compositions, but I don’t paint from a specific image. I draw a lot too and I think my work reflects the value that I use in my sketches.
JS: What themes or concepts are you exploring in your current series of paintings?
EF: The paintings are mostly landscapes, because that is what makes me happy. But the theme – we’re at a point in our culture where change is dramatic. It’s lost and found, its things that are lost and being found now that put us into the direction we are going on. I include some pages from my personal drawings, old letters, notebook paper, things that have been lost and have now been found.
I am also playing around with the idea of dislocation and separation, by showing the interior and exterior views.
JS: What is your favorite painting and why?
EF: If you mean in this show... My favorite painting in this show is “This Side of the Glass II.” It feels a little like a pivot piece. I’m not sure what it is about it, but I feel really satisfied when I look at it.
If you mean of all time, that is like asking me which finger is my favorite... I need them all! :) My current favorite painting is Rod and Reel by Andrew Wyeth. It is everything. The design and composition makes me salivate and the abstraction in the surface quality, I mean... And that red string. What the heck!!! I love every inch of it.
JS: How has teaching art informed your process?
EF: I always learn from my students. There’s a generational gap between us, I’m in my 50s and they’re all under 20. They’ll come up and ask me questions and it would completely change what I do – based on a question. I teach using the socratic method, asking them questions until they come up with the answer themselves. One of the most powerful things is being in a constant creative space.
JS: How do you decide when a painting is finished?
EF: You feel it. It depends on the piece, whether it's planned or not. But it is intuitive. I tend to lose track of the piece, so it's a feeling when it's done.
JS: Where do you see your art going next? What are your plans for the future?
EF: I am not sure. I am following my gut right now.
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See Elaine Florimonte’s Lost & Found at Touchstone Gallery through December 3.
Click here to read a review of the exhibition in the Washington Post.