Encaustic & Etchings Exhibition at the Sayville Library 1/5-1/31

LB Volle has a vision of the botanical image that is communicated with forms and whimsical lines. The use of pigmented wax presents an atmospheric infusion inherent with the encaustic painting process.

Encaustic & Intaglio Prints

Conveying natural movement and content, Volle references the Long Island flora with light and color by layering transparent wax layers to the board. The representational depictions become abstractions through the medium and composition. In the upstairs gallery there is an array of biological bright vivid transparent encaustic paintings that approach textures and colors of sea, sound and wind: Feelings of summer, eelgrass and sailing in crisp wind. Abstracted forms are representational of the weather and the organic.

Downstairs, I took a short tour and talk with the artist. I was curious to hear how this darker grouping of pieces by the artist, were now stoic stills with dark monotone blacks and duo tone sepias. It was explained that an emotion of mourning was in the process creating these. Here the images were isolated organic impressions hovering over vine shadowy covered backgrounds. A fragile white line form had a floating transparent suspension hovering over the layering of the darks. Shapes here were isolated and possibly as with most of Volle’s work may be a seed looking to plant or attach.

There is a wall of Volle’s collaborative prints that included prints created during a recent artist invitational visit to China. Black & White Linnaean textural qualities are strong in these prints. Here the softness and the tactile drawn surfaces it was evident that ferns, stems, seeds & pods spurred an inspiration for a beautiful intertwined design system. One particular print had an asymmetric design structure where I saw an amiable sea grown sphere; another thought could be that this was a biological gamete intrusion. Interpretations of organic and biological feelings through scientific representations are intrinsic in this nature-motivated collection.

Rocco Citeno creates figurative scenes of the south shore of Long Island, vacation destinations and dreamscapes utilizing solar plates coupled with an intaglio printing process.

Solar Plate Intaglio Prints and Embossments w metal flake

Using a Solar process to make intaglio plates, the artist has utilized his photography with computer design programs and solar plate exposure for printing a metal plate printed in a traditional Old World manner.

The results are an array of aquatints and figurative photographic lines. He explores a process that combines modern technology with the old photography and traditional printmaking with a natural process of using a solar sun exposure plate. A process patented on Long Island.

In keeping with a photo format, the prints have white margins and are 5”x7” image standard. Not to obscure the photo process this artist has embraced it. Solar techniques are accented with halos and lines. Negative space has the flat tones of an aquatint - but the form is truly photogenic. Bright navy, sienna, and indigo inks construct the images as a print image rather than the halftone dot or silver nitrate of commercial reproduction prints and darkroom contacts respectively.

The representation of life on Long Island with scenes of village festivals, beaches, lighthouses and Fire Island are depicted lovingly. With his images of vacation trips and portraits, we are drawn into the artists’ realm. Abstract embossments are grouped with vacation scenes. Here the paper surface and the metallic pieces shine clean, no ink but an indented run of the paper through the press with surface metallic flecks. Citeno works figuratively with the photo process & traditional print and creates a dreamy vision of leisure time on this Long Island.