Fine Arts chair Stephanie DeManuelle is branching out. New works, inspired by a multi-twigged piece of driftwood, were on display last month at the Corscaden Arts & Barn Gallery in Keene Valley, NY. Three were oil paintings and another was an oil and charcoal on panel. The Essex County town of Keene Valley is also the origin of the driftwood that DeManuelle welcomed into her studio.
The paintings “look like they can be landscape-derived. They are all … sort of variations on a theme,” DeManuelle told Robin Caudell of the Press-Republican, an upstate newspaper. “I do a lot of texture in my work and lots of viscosity with the paint.”
DeManuelle’s studio table:
“I’m referencing what I’m looking at,” said DeManuelle of her driftwood. “I was going back and forth with charcoal and oil paint and leaving some bits uncovered so everything isn’t thick.”
And the inspirational driftwood:
“The driftwood is the star now,” says DeManuelle with a big smile.
Check out previous posts about Stephanie DeManuelle’s work:
Watch it here! The fine art of Stephanie DeManuelle