SEAN McCUSKER SEAN IN HIS ART STUDIO
Harryet P. Candee: Sean, what you have come up with in terms of your art is totally signature. Please explain how you began with the rounded, gentle personas and how did they all end up on such a lovely, earthy ground? Sean McCusker: Early on I felt that the figure, some representation of a person, was important for my art because it gave the opportunity for the audience to relate to the scene. However, a straight reproduction of the human form I found limiting, as it caused all sorts of conflicting questions. A realistic figure may indicate race, gender, social status, etc.; while an abstract symbol for a figure is not laden with such labels. As I started to simplify the figure, I maintained the rounded forms that appealed to my sensibilities. The end result was the figure I use today which can relate in various ways depending on the con-
20 • OCTOBER 2018 THE ARTFUL MIND
PHOTO BY TASJA KEETMAN
Interview by Harryet P. Candee Photography by Tasja Keetman
text, and the viewer. My figure needed a place to exist, so in the same manner I began developing the elements of its landscape one at a time. Each element added more connections, but similarly was ambiguous. Can you tell us about your techniques in terms of preparing the canvas, the layering of paint and varnish, and why you choose to work on such a lovely medium as opposed to the traditional canvas? Sean: My oil paintings are built up with thin layers of transparent color. I will paint a layer, let it dry, and paint another. Each painting is constructed in this way with roughly 30 layers in the final product. In order to maintain all of these layers I mix my pigments with a transparent medium so they are more translucent than out of
the tube pigments. I also never mix colors when painting, all of the secondary and tertiary colors in my work, such as greens, are mixed by light penetrating through various layers of color, such as yellow and blue to make green fields. This process gives the effect of light emerging from within the surface of the painting because light literally penetrates 30 layers into the surface before reflecting back out. Oil glazing was a technique born out of my varied interests in art mediums. Before I tried oil painting I was obsessed with printmaking. The rhythmic procedures involved with producing the final product were soothing for me. However, the intense colors of oil paint captured my heart the moment I first tried them. Because of my love of the process of printmaking, it was natural for me to develop a similar procedure