Afterglow 2020

Rose Freymuth-Frazier’s painting, Afterglow, uses oil paint to capture a landscape bathed in the warm light of the setting sun. Oil paint is made by mixing pigments with a drying oil, such as linseed, walnut or poppy seed oil. The artist’s mastery of this medium allows her to blend and layer colors, capturing the fleeting effects of light on the scene. It’s easy to forget that oil paint itself is a material, with its own inherent qualities of viscosity and sheen. The artist uses brushes to move the paint, and the strokes are visible on the canvas. In essence, the artist is coaxing the material to evoke a sense of place and time. But think about the socio-economic context of this work. The making of oil paint itself relies on industrialized processes, from the extraction of raw materials to its mass production and distribution. This is in contrast to the time and patience invested by the artist in creating this landscape, inviting us to reflect on the relationship between mass production and individual creativity.