Women in Art 278 Magazine April 2016 | Page 26

american artist Jennie Traill Schaeffer Oil Painting The process of applying pigmented oil to a surface - pushing it, mixing it, turning it into the essence of something conveying meaning - becomes a playful, intellectual, and spiritual experience. I play with paint, mixing brushes and knives to create the topography of gesture. In the words of artist Wayne Thiebaud, “Manipulation of paint is key.” What emerges from this experience are not abstractions, but realist paintings featuring vintage kitchen appliances, food stuff, wedding cake portraits and aprons that are re-contextualized. I explore the relationship of the subjects as an almost religious icon, as a portrait. Everything I paint has an energy that I strive to bring to the surface through emphatic edges, vivid colors and heavily textured, gestural brush strokes. wom en ART page 26