INTIMATE MOMENTS: NEW WORKS BY ESCHWAN WINDING 

Eschwan Winding has lived an interesting life, whether as a painting teacher, gallerista or wife of jazz legend, Kai Winding, art has been a part of her life for nearly six decades.  What makes Eschwan and her art so truly special is that she takes the necessary time to stop and feel the natural changes that are synonymous with life and living, and in turn, interprets them onto the canvas with fluid expressive spatula strokes that connect the viewer with the notion of the constancy of change.  The result is the tangible integration of her feelings by the viewer.  Eschwan’s work is charged with the notion that a feeling or moment in space is fleeting.  The ability to express visually such abstract emotions is due in part to her choice of medium, encaustic.  It is as if the medium itself implores the viewer to heed the immediacy of the moment and to feel and react to the scene depicted because it could quite easily melt right off and be lost forever. Encaustic combines pigments and beeswax into a hard paste-like substance that is applied to the canvas with heat.  It is practically an art in itself to be able to apply this precarious medium, and Eschwan will admit that the challenges of working the figure in such the unpredictable medium that is encaustic has caused her many a near emotional meltdowns, but the effect is so unlike any other that she always perseveres. 

One may conjure up thoughts of Jasper Johns or Diego Rivera when they hear the word, “encaustic”, however these works are hard to compare to Winding’s.  Even Rivera who worked figuratively seems to me never used the medium to its potential as he would often scrape down the natural texture from melting and the effect ended-up appearing the same as if he had painted straight in oil.  This newest exhibit is by far Eschwan’s best work to date.  The clarity and intensity of the colors, the fluidity and seductiveness of the figures are hard to imagine being carried out with the same passion in any other medium.  Eschwan allows the bubbling and bulges that occur during application to form part of the visual rhetoric.  There is no scrapping or conforming the medium to the standards of oil, instead the encaustic creates a sense of inner light and really brings the canvases to life.

Intimate Moments is the title of Eschwan’s newest show of figurative works opening at Galeria/Atelier on October 31, 2009. In her own words, “We all have private times whether we are meditating, contemplating, remembering, or deeply sharing with someone close to us. The range of human experience is vast. In these paintings, I chose to capture intimate moments; moments of privacy, reverie, when the energy is focused inside, and the interconnectedness with all sentient beings can be experienced.”

The show of Eschwan Winding happens to coincide with the gallery’s 5 year anniversary.  Both Eschwan and Galeria/Atelier are celebrating 5 yearsl, please join us for a cocktail reception to celebrate this momentous occasion on Saturday, October 31^st from 5-8 PM.  The event will also coincide with La Aurora’s Dia de los Muertos party.