The limitless layering, glazing, scraping and drips appealed to us. The soft and elegant palette made our hearts sing. The suggested figures and the fluidity of these canvases really made us sit up and want to shout – or, in Alice McNeely’s case – whisper, with joy.
It was love at first sight for Huff Harrington Fine Art and Alice McNeely’s soft and translucent canvases. And, whether the subject is one of her trademark shadowy figures or an abstract, McNeely focuses on the expressive qualities of color and texture and how they interact with the canvas surface. Upon further review, you can see that her intriguing and beguiling work is made up entirely of contrasts: surface and depth; structure and fragmentation; energy and restfulness. The delicate tension of the painting comes from the flat, two-dimensional canvas and the tactile texture of the paint itself.
Alice likes to paint in an unstructured and improvisional manner, letting the paint and texture speak to the viewer. She likes to say her work is “a soulful response to color, texture, surface and the expressive nature of paint.” McNeely considers herself to be a self-taught artist who is “forever experimenting. (She is) unafraid of risk, for this is the fertile condition in which growth can occur.” She also likes to think that she creates art as an expression of herself and as a way to connect with others.
This New Orleans native studied fine art at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and University of New Orleans. After a long hiatus away from canvas and easel, the studio called her back and today, Alice devotes as much time as possible to painting.
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The artist's technique, in her words:
“I generally start with an underlayer of color, juxtaposing colors and loose shapes that I feel present the beginnings of a pleasing composition. I may turn the canvas during this and subsequent phases of the prosess, and may allow the paint to drip in some areas, and may scrape in others...whatever seems to evolve...there is no preconceived finished product. I then begin to layer, adding more color, building upon the composition and adding depth and interest, still allowing either dripping or scraping or palette knife work, whatever I feel the piece needs. I start to concentrate areas of calm and energy, structure and looseness, surface and depth etc. by "taking away" with the addition of areas of light or white which create a place for the eye to rest and a place for the eye to see depth, color and energy. Finally I punctuate the composition with small, carefully placed jolts of bright or dark, and scribbles of oil crayon, to bring out contrast and make the piece "pop". This is somewhat of a metaphor for the human condition...all of our collective need to seek out calm amidst chaos, peace in suffering, redemption in the face of betrayal...things that each and every one of us has lived through, can relate to, and can come away from with fresh knowledge and renewed purpose.”
