Local artist incorporates glass heads into still-life paintings
Springfifield artistRebecca Graves is at it again. She began to take her painting seriously in 2006, and is a quick study. Known regionally for her expertise with oil paint, she is again pushing the envelope of possibilitieswith subjectmatter.
One ofGraves’ fifirst exhibits was at Studio 14 Gallery in Tipp City in the spring of 2012. She was the featured artist, and the viewers’ reactions were palpable. Graves was showing 20- plus large- scale paintings, and the image “View From My Room” reflflected the outside world. Gallery owner Evelyn Staub shrewdly hung the painting right next to a window. The reflflections of city buildings in the lemon water glass almost mirrored the actual viewof the city block below. It was virtually life imitating art.
Her recent series still has the diffifficult-to-accomplish reflflective work, but with a humorous bent. She acquired a glass head and situated it in her still lifes to make it look like part of a fifigure: by the edge of a shelf on top of a draped scarf, or carrying a tea cup, and so on. One of her latest, “Symphonic Experience,” features two heads where one fifififigure appears to be playing the violin, while the other listens.
“I am fascinated by the study of reflection and refraction,” said Graves. “Mystill lifes are indulgently fifilled with metal and glass pieces.”
In one, a female form carries some tea, while the head artfully reflects another scarf and red tulips behind. The scene is enhanced by a small wire mannequin, a wedding photo, sand castle, and magenta tulips in another reflflective square vase.
Her latest series is in a style somewhere between realism and abstraction. Graves’ surreal portraits feature a head and hair, fifilled and surrounded by what makes that person tick: their hobbies, interests, and loves.
“They are rich in symbolism to tell the story of who a person is, instead of what they look like,” says Graves.
And about who Graves is … her artistic talent flflourished under the care of her mother and grandmoth- ers. Her grasp of color, texture, and pattern were nurtured with visits to a fabric store with a grandmother. She comes from a musical family, and she says “music influenced my composition style.”
Her talent as a “visual storyteller” came fromher mother, who fostered her Rebecca Graves Springfifield artist
love of reading at an early age. All three were passionate gardeners, and Graves features many flowers in her paintings.
An Ohio native, Graves plays the piano, and went back toschool at 47 to study art and psychology at Wittenberg University.
Her paintings have won multiple awards, and have appeared in many group and solo shows.
Her art is in public and private collections in America and beyond. She is a member of the Fairborn Art Association and Tipp City Area Art Council.
Her studio is in her Springfifield home in Springfifield that she shares with four cats.
Formore ofGraves’work, visit rebeccagraves. fifineartstudioonline.com, or email rebeccapaints@gmail.com.
‘Iamfascinated by the study of reflection and refraction. My still lifes are indulgently filled with metal and glass pieces.’