In the November “Large Works” exhibit (on view through December 3), the Cora Rupp Award for Best in Show went to Pine Trees, a 52ʺ x 56ʺ acrylic painting by Marina Troy. Troy is no stranger to the large format, preferring the immersive experience of creating the work — but not the challenge of transportation. She also told us about her unusual favorite painting tool, her creative process, and the origin of Pine Trees in our Q&A, below.
Does Pine Trees have any particular inspiration or significance? How would you describe the painting style and color scheme?
Marina Troy: Pine Trees had a different title when it was first produced: Dejeuner sur l’herbe. Yes, it was named as an homage to the famous Manet painting, since it reminded me of its central part, only digitized and enhanced ten times, and leading to the similar source of light in the distance. As for the painting style, I tend to describe it as uniquely my own, since I am using credit cards as a painting tool: there are somewhat nervous, spontaneous outbursts of movement, with whatever color scheme makes sense at the time. No set pattern there.
How did you start using credit cards as painting tools, and how do you use them? Is it a tool you use often?
As I like texture on my paintings, and brushes tend to “dilute” the intensity of color, I just grabbed the first thing that was handy: larger than a painter’s knife, and as flexible, credit cards (the expired ones, of course) allow me to drag the paint across the canvas, changing its intensity and shade, while preserving the individual expression of “stroke.” I dip the shorter side of a card into, often, several colors at once, and observe what will happen when it is applied on canvas. I also use it on wet paint, to thin out layers, and do some editing. I use credit cards more often than I use brushes, which come at the end, for some final “fine tuning” of a painting that I am working on. Continue reading Q&A with Award Winner Marina Troy
