‘Layer by Layer’

In-Town’s July artist builds her works with paper, paint

Even a grade-schooler in an introductory art class can understand that a painting is a series of layers.

So if local artist Janice Kindred describes herself as a layerist, how exactly is that different?

“Being a layerist is different as the motivation is in the creation as much as the finished product,” she explains.

“Most art is done in layers, right? Beginning with an underpainting or a drawing and building onto that base with paint and finishing with a protective top layer.”

By comparison, she says, her early layers are “mostly found paper, such as opened envelopes, bills, old letters, diary pages, etc.”

Paint will figure into the piece, but these beginning stages “are without specific thought,” she says, allowing her to “apply with abandon, methodically building and adding small pieces of paper or at times covering the entire board in a single layer.”

Here’s where patience — or assembly-line organization — is key.

“Each layer must dry thoroughly, which forces me to work on several boards concurrently and over a period of many days,” she says.

The base layers in her works are shades of white. Color is incorporated in the middle layers using handmade patterned papers and textures and alternating light or white colors.

“At this stage, I begin subtracting by using tools to reduce areas by sanding the entire surface to strip away, revealing and exposing parts below,” she says. “Almost always, areas begin to show that appeal to me with unexpected play of pattern and color.”

She continues working in an abstract manner as she begins to form a composition.

“Finishing is the part I love most as every step I add creates an issue elsewhere that will need to be resolved,” she says. “It’s the push and pull until finally there is a focus.”

Kindred is a relative newcomer to Chattanooga, arriving in 2011 for family and her husband’s job. She became a member of In-Town Gallery, which is featuring her work this month, in 2016. She’s also a member of Mixed Media Inspired Artists.

She says her father, who began painting in his 40s, continues to create in his 80s.

“I hope to see [his influence] in my art, although to my dismay I lack his beautiful brushwork.”

Which is not to say her layered works lack merit. Kindred says she has been told by admirers that her creations have immediacy and are “uncontrived but complex.”

“I love textures, whether real or implied, and use all the tools in my reach to alter and restructure my surface,” she says.

“Seeing color skim over the top makes the textures come alive and reveal the layers beneath.”

“Pinwheel” by Janice Kindred is a collage of handmade papers, rice paper and found papers. “Satisfied with the energy, dynamic black/white and metal color combination and the lively lines, I felt no need to layer over it,” she says.

Janice Kindred’s “Cold Beer/Live Bait” has 20 or so layers of paper. She used dry embossing to impress patterns onto watercolor paper for some of the top areas. She added touches of fabrics, netting or screen to catch paint on the surfaces. She also...

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS Artist Janice Kindred describes “Tango” as multiple layers of her handmade papers woven to create strong movement and a 3-D effect. “Oranges, reds and gold dance over the surface,” she says.

“Bow Down” has “imagery reminiscent of royalty,” says the artist, Janice Kindred. She used a mix of rich golds, shades of teal and bold magenta “to inspire reverence.”