Henry Leo Schoebel: Artist Statement Born in New York, 1955
Originally Inspired by Van Dycks’ painting “Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo” (1620), the paintings in this exhibit are a result of my response to and reflection on the COVID pandemic. The work is decidedly idiosyncratic for me, especially in terms of its figurative components. Perhaps this is because my visceral response to the pandemic was anything but abstract. Yet the work, I think, remains playful and decorative, enduring elements of my paintings. Employing iconographic motifs from early Christian illuminations, Greco-Roman Mythology, and my own peculiar leitmotifs of flies and frogs the paintings address my fears, anger, and acceptance of the pandemic as it has waxed and waned, and while I think the paintings are a bit “quirky,” each work is an attempt to make a beautiful painting from a place of darkness.
Process and Materials:
Surfaces: are Fredrix, acrylic primed, ultra smooth, poly flax, canvas which he stretches, prime side down, over a birch plywood panel (paintings are executed on the unprimed side).
Paints: I use Golden fluid Acrylics and then I thin to a desired consistency with a mixture of distilled water and Golden GAC 200 and 100. The finished work is sealed with multiple coats of the distilled water, Golden GAC 200 and 100 medium mixture. The final coat is wet sanded and buffed to a smooth matte finish.
Brushes: Princeton Heritage #2 round for fine cross hatching and a #1 Connoisseur 266 White Taklon Filbert for color washes.