Canadian contemporary abstract painter Mary Laucks

Mary Laucks: Contemporary Abstract Painter

Art Shows

CURRENT SHOW:

2021 Latest Work: "Macrobiome"

October 1 - October 31, 2021: ArtSpring Lobby Space, Salt Spring Island, BC

The paintings in this exhibit are the results of a painting process I have been developing over the last few years. I became interested in how gestural, partly random marks laid down (mostly with palette knives and scarpers) over time in layers can evolve, through continual selection, into larger "macro" forms in the painting. These macro forms are constituted by the underlying marks, but why our brain "sees" them is not clear. When the macro forms are analyzed, there are certain elements (e.g., contrast, hue, thickness, opacity, size) that can be used to explain how the brain sees the larger forms, but every viewer will see different forms, so these elements do not completely describe the phenomenon.

"Dwelling in Winter (1-6)" are six black and white pieces created by overlaying many layers of acrylic marks. "Earth Biomes: Desert, Forest, Tundra" are three multi-layered paintings with a limited palette of two pigments: orange-blue, red-green, and violet-yellow. "Ode to Gerhard Richter (1-2)" These paintings took inspiration from Gerhard Richter and his technique of scraping paint with large scrapers over the support, then layering these marks. "Macrobiome (1-3)" are three figurative paintings with a three-pigment palette. "Your intimate friends" is a pen drawing exploring texture and complexity through line only. "Dissolving", "Topsy Turvy", and "Port of Call" combine ink marks and acrylic paint to create layers and forms.

Mary Laucks 2021 show Macrobiome - at ArtSpring Lobby Space on Salt Spring Island

PREVIOUS SHOWS:
	2019 Show November 1 - Dec 1, 2019: ArtSpring Open Space, Salt Spring Island, BC "Hexaville" is op-art created by first laying down a grid of colored hexagons and then warping the hexagons, by repainting some of their interiors, to create a three dimensional illusion. "Hustle" and "Pelagic" are a diptych with complementary hues (orange and blue) and inverted palettes. They are process paintings that began life as large figurative gestures that may suggest human form and movement. The surfaces were built up using various acrylic media, paint, large tools and large body motions. "Homage to Hans Hoffman I, II, III" are studies on paper experimenting with Hans Hoffman's ideas about the placement of color and shape in landscape compositions to create the sense of space and a path through the painting space. Large and small colour blocks in relation to each other and the boundary of the painting can create "push and pull" through a painting. "Homeland" and "Earth Rising" are further explorations of the ideas in "Homage to Hans Hoffman". "Strangers I-V", are a series of smaller abstract figurative paintings using texture, marking and glazing to create the context for the forms.
2018 Show Oct 1-31, 2018: ArtSpring Open Space, Salt Spring Island, BC "The Dentist's Chair" is a painting inspired by a view of a dentist's ceiling air vent, as I saw it through his glasses, while he drilled in my mouth. Take your inspiration where you can get it, as they say! "Rosetta I and II" are made first with dry wall mud to give texture and provide a surface to scratch on and then painted with acrylic media and paint. This diptych plays with the idea of hieroglyphics or sacred tablets made to store important cultural memes. "A Life in a Day" is a story or a series of memories stored in a geometric pattern. The five paintings, ("Life Dance I-V"), are a series of abstract figurative shapes, acrylic media and paint on artboard, framed. "Nefertiti" (framed) is mourning the death of her cat. The smaller works ("Untitled I-V") on paper are studies of layered and textured surfaces with marks that may be meaningful or not. The marks contrast with the natural forms and imply language and symbols.
	2016 Optical Disruptions October 3 - 31, 2016: ArtSpring Open Space, Salt Spring Island, BC After a trip to the contemporary art museums in Paris in 2015, I was struck by the effect that size has on a painting. So this year I experimented with large paintings – "Stareway", "Through the Vanishing Point", "Bataclan", and "Chroma Flash" are all 5 ft x 5 ft – human size. All of them also play with colour and illusion. I feel that human size paintings have a presence beyond their content. See what you think! The smaller works on paper are studies of layered and textured surfaces with marks that may be meaningful or not. The marks contrast with the natural forms and imply language and symbols.The series, Arche I, II, and III, was inspired by the amazing collection of indigenous art at the Branly museum in Paris. Acrylic media was used for River of Life I, II, and III to make highly textured paintings with contrasting surfaces.
2015 Jungle: Tangling with complexity Oct 1 - 31, 2015: ArtSpring Open Space, Salt Spring Island, BC This year I have continued to experiment with a process of layering and texturing acrylic paint to build complex surfaces that appear to have dimensionality and depth. Although my process is artificial, the painted surfaces begin to resemble natural surfaces because in some ways my process mimics natural processes like weathering, accretion, and growth. For the two paper series "Cerebral Archeology" and "Human Geology" I used thinner layers of acrylic medium and added other smaller marks to conform to the scale of the works. In "Innerscape I", "Innerscape II", and "Desert Solitaire" the marks are more pronounced and the media are thicker, but the process is similar.
Photo Credit: Bob Rogers	2014 Vision Unframed: Painting Outside the Rectangle November 1 - 30, 2014: ArtSpring Open Space, Salt Spring Island, BC In the last year I have been exploring what it means to paint inside shapes that are not rectangular, and therefore do not follow conventional rules of composition. Composition within a non-rectangular frame is more complex because there is no one ratio of sides that defines the space of the painting. It was challenging and exciting to create designs that work in multiple orientations and have no reference to a rectangle. When you look at these pieces, ask yourself what effect the non-rectangular boundary has on the composition -- and enjoy the paintings!
March 17 - 31, 2014: "20/20 Vision" ArtSpring Gallery, Salt Spring Island, BC The two paintings, "Klein" and "D-Klein", were inspired by the mathematical idea of a Klein surface - a surface that cannot in fact exist in three dimensions. The "inside" of a Klein surface connects to the "outside" of its surface without a boundary or intersection, so its existence challenges the fundamental meaning of "connection". See the two paintings Klein and DKlein
	October 1-31, 2013: "Depth Perception" ArtSpring Open Space, Salt Spring Island, BC How do we perceive depth in a painting? In these paintings I explore alternatives to the traditional use of size and contrast (aerial perspective) to imitate depth on a flat surface. I use texture (both implied and material) and topography to provide the third dimension in the paintings.

August 1- 31, 2012: "Chromatic Attractions"

ArtSpring Open Space, Salt Spring Island, BC

What happens at the interface between colours? How do colours form relationships to each other and what effects can be created when colours mix optically (as light passes between layers of thin paint)? When intense complementary colours are juxtaposed, a kind of optical vibration (or discord) can be set up between the colours. How can this be used to affect the perception of space and form and composition?