Marion Peck American, 1963
9 1/8 x 11 3/4 in
"Eyes are the windows of the soul. I would say that most of the time I am trying for the kind of neutral expression I find so wonderful in the art of the renaissance, where even a saint in the midst of martyrdom has a peaceful, faraway look in their eyes."
- You paint with oil, in a very classical manner. What do you like about this technique in particular?"I have always been drawn to it in an irresistible manner. It's kind of like I had no choice, like I was born wanting to paint this way, I don't know why. Very soon in life I discovered that I far preferred painting with oils over acrylic, a medium I cannot stand. (It's plastic! Yuck!) Whenever I speak with a representational painter who is using acrylic I try to talk them into trying oil instead. It has so much more richness and range! "- Because you use oil painting, time is of essence and your paintings take a long time. How do you manage this very specific time characteristic?"I often say that I don't really so much have a painting style as I do a kind of neurotic compulsion. In many ways I am a naive painter. I often feel like I don't know what I am doing, like I'm feeling my way blindly forward. But I have a compulsion to get whatever painting I'm working on absolutely right, and will doggedly pursue it through whatever it takes to get there. Sometimes it feels like it comes down to the tiniest, most itty bitty pieces of paint, but they all have to be right. Sometimes I compare it to cooking, when you have to stir and stir until the moment when a sauce starts to thicken or the egg whites start to fluff. Then all of the sudden, the painting is "done". Sometimes it takes an awful lot of stirring to get there."