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STANLEY WENOCUR

Drawing, Painting, Sculpture / Installation, Visual / Media

As an abstract artist, my process begins with uncertainty and evolves to determinateness over time. I do not sketch out a piece in advance. For me, uncertainty is critical in order to remain open to multiple influences and serendipity during the creative process. I am also particularly concerned with color and texture. The materiality of a piece is important to me, touching and feeling physically and emotionally

About the Artist

I have been painting and exhibiting since the mid 60's and that is what I currently do full time. I have been affiliated with several galleries over the years, most currently with the Studio Gallery in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington DC. For more biographical info, see my website at www.stanwenocurart.com or my resume here.

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Artist's Statement

I like the hand of the artist to play a decisive creative role. Almost all my mixed media work involves fabrics or paper of one kind or another, and often other materials to provide texture. Usually, these mixed media pieces are multi-layered, for example, cement covered by fabric or layers of fabrics, then paint and charcoal. As I work the surface of a piece with various media, I also de- construct and re-construct it by tearing, sanding, and re-working so that underlying layers can show through. This process is both rough and delicate as hidden marks and images emerge and are built on to generate a sense of light, place, object, and environment. In my most recent work, I have been creating mixed media abstract images on 30 x 40” illustration board following my process of beginning from uncertainty and allowing for serendipity. The illustration board, however, does not lend itself to my usual process of sanding and deconstructing mentioned above, although it does allow for layering of materials and paint. In some recent work I have challenged myself to leave a lot ,of white space around the images. More currently, instead of white space, I have started by painting the white board black and/or other colors and I have abandoned my commitment not to use the entire space.

Featured Work

Photos

This is a mixed media piece that employs a variety of materials including acrylic paint, various fabrics, acrylic mediums, and colored pencil. In the early days of the war, my thoughts often turned to Ukraine and the brutality of the fighting. And as I thought about it, I also recalled that my parents grew up in the Ukraine during an era of pogroms and the Russian revolution and an influenza epidemic, I grew up with my mother's stories of how the family dealt with soldiers coming into their house and how her family escaped over the border to Poland where some relatives lived, and then how they immigrated to the USA.
This is a mixed media piece (paper, acrylic paint, and colored pencil. Colored pencil is used to shade and alter some of the base colors. The piece appears heavy and dark; images seem to float in space; but light comes through in and around the shapes that dominate the picture space.
This is a bold, abstract, mixed media piece. The red-green color draws the eye and tries to dominate the piece. However, yjr smaller "cast-off" fragments draw the eye away from the center and help to create a sense of space. The piece also requires close attention to notice that the blacks are not entirely black, the varying shades and shading of red, and the red reflections in the fragments.
This a mixed media piece that employs layering, tearing, and reconstruction as part of the creative proces. The viewer is left to imagine what this piece is about as it has suggestions in its colored, texture and space that could take one in many different directions.
This mixed media piece uses bold character- like gestures to create a kind of pattern. The boldness of the pattern is then mitigated by a pumice like texture, cotton, and colored paint.
This piece is patterned with black paint. Unlike Untitled 100, there are no character-like gestures. Instead the black paint comes in patches and blobs. Various colors, particularly yellows and greens light up the piece while areas of pink and gray cover over some of the black. This piece was created primarily with a paint roller that was covered with dried acrylic paint and medium to make the roller surface uneven.