Homemade, by Lendy Hensley

[image_with_animation image_url=”8162″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] They started as doodles of cups on legal pads, these thoughtful experiments in color and line by Lendy Hensley. The color concepts were inspired by colorist Josef Albers, the linear compositions were inspired by potter Gwyn Hanssen Pigott. Lendy combined the two, plus quite a bit of her own sauce, to make this series of paintings that are delightful, clever, and tasteful.

Notice the compositional choices: tangential lines and vertical placement (bottles at the same height, or varied) have been used thoughtfully, or gracefully avoided. Ooverlapping forms have been carefully measured, then relaxed. Each mix of colors, weighted with one color or the other at the overlaps determines which bottle appears to be in front or behind, and these illusions of placement are often counteracted by the layout, creating a sense of unexpectedly pleasant ambivalent space. The weight and placement of each and color is active and in balance. These are textured paintings, layered and luscious and affable paintings.

Students: Do not assume that this process was a smooth one. Compositions sketched, I will tell you (but only in secret) that once the sketches were resolved for composition, our dear friend and League provost Lendy Hensley thought the color would be the easy part. She did. She really did. She pulls things together all the time with total success, so why not these little lined forms? It’s only color. Oh no. Simultaneous contrast is a boo-bugger. I will now whisper in your ear, dear painters:

Color is never the easy part.

Color is an infinite chess game, and every move effects every other move. One section goes yellow, the warm brown turns icky purple. What once was blue and yellow is now the color you hoped you’d never mixed. The blue with grey looks like it should be wearing a bow tie. Resolved, these bottle paintings all look simple. But the finding of solutions to each puzzle took significant tenacity. Each painting has at least five paintings below the top layer. Various color schemes were tried, then painted over, and over, and over again. My helpful critique resulted in a moment of manic jubilation, a cleansing by fire: hard fought color battles (color bottle battles) were eliminated to start fresh – all paintings painted white one week before the show. These are not simple paintings. They were hard frickin’ earned.

It was the show deadline that enforced the completion of this series, and isn’t this why we have show deadlines? Otherwise we live with stacks of almosts and could be’s. There were many looped hours spent with the very elemental act of moving colors from tube to palette to canvas – looking, looking, and repeating.

For her paint: Gamblin’s fastmatte oils were mixed with liberal amounts of Liquin, creating a surface that nearly resembled a delicious encaustic wax. This dried perfectly when baked at 150 degrees for 20 minutes (if you try this at home, the League is not responsible for anything at all ever). Oven roasting kept the assembly line moving at midnight, and colors could be tried and retried in quick succession. The instant gratification of acrylics with the deliciousness of oils, oven roasted to perfection. The delightful compositions were completed, assigned colors clicked, resolved.

8 new paintings, made and sold. Lendy nailed it. Homemade was a home run. [divider line_type=”Full Width Line” line_thickness=”1″ divider_color=”default” custom_height=”30