Modern Images, Ancient Techniques by Blaine Deutsch
Posted on June 30, 2008
Filed Under Featured Artists |
It’s a race against time.
When he paints, he has to work fast. Like a chess player always thinking a few moves ahead.
That’s because his painting is dictated by the medium - hot beeswax.
Meet Blaine Deutsch. South Shore painter and printmaker.
What’s extraordinary about Blaine’s work is the process which demands his complete attention. The results are fascinating that make you wonder…how did he do that? We’ll let Blaine explain his chosen painting technique that dates back to ancient Egypt.
In his own words:
“A look into my work and studio technique is a study in contrasts. In the print studio, the pace is much different. Every print requires a series of meticulous steps. Slow, careful attention must be paid through the entire process. Often, many weeks of work are required before any semblance of an image begins to appear.
The pace of my painting is dictated by the medium. For all of my paintings, I work in encaustic. Rather than painting with an oil or water-based paint, I am painting with molten beeswax. This is a technique that dates back to the funerary portraits painted by the ancient Egyptians.
Next to my easel sits a hotplate covered with half a dozen or so tin cans. The hotplate keeps the wax, mixed with various colored pigments in the tins, liquid until I’m ready to work with it. Once I dip my brush in the wax, I have about 5 seconds to move over the canvas and make a brush stroke.
Because the wax dries so quickly, it is impossible to “work” the paint as one would with oil or acrylic. Each stroke must be thought out and deliberate. It is possible to paint over existing wax, but the color and texture of previous brush strokes remain evident. The transparent nature of the wax allows me to add collage to a painting. Often, additional images on paper are layered within the wax.
Once a painting is complete, it must be cured. A heat lamp is passed above the entire surface of the painting. This heats up all layers of wax just enough for them to fuse together.
Printmaking is a very general term that covers many differing techniques. The prints in my portfolio were created using a combination of copper plate etching, (intaglio) and aluminum plate lithography. To describe the techniques involved in either of these methods would require many pages of steps and variables. One aspect worth pointing out is that, while I’m working on a print, I am creating a mirror image of the final print. All drawing and writing must be done in reverse. To facilitate this, I have trained myself to right backwards (and upside down) just as fluidly as my daily writing.
After finishing the plate, dampened paper if placed on top and they are passed through a press. Once the image transfers to the paper, it now reads correctly. The creation of the master plate allows me to print numerous identical images.”
Blaine has a BFA in Painting & Printmaking. Before working with Corey Rich Photography in South Shore, he spent 12 years as a Creative Director at various agencies. In addition to several private collections, Blaine’s work is part of the permanent collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. In 1995, Blaine was the youngest person to date to be included in the National Print Biennial (He was 22.)
Blaine says he could live the rest of his life eating only Peanut Butter & Jelly - or lately it’s been sunflower seed butter with raspberry preserves - on a tortilla.
Featured Works:
- Two Plus One
- Writing Desk
- Down(y)
- Four Engines
This category: Art (index)