WORK process
Resin Paintings
The surfaces of Peter Hoffer’s landscape and abstract paintings are coated
with a highly reflective resin varnish. This material was chosen as a means
to create tension between a painted surface and refined encapsulation.
This packaging of the “objet d’art” stills a moment in space and time
and alludes to an item of value, not unlike religious reliquary.
This process of exaggerated surface varnishing was extracted from the historical
19th century practice of Parisian-style Salon exhibition. The “vernissage,”
which today is known as the “opening,” was a common event among painters
to re-varnish or shellac their works. This would make the piece refined
and give it the appearance of being new and freshly completed. As it were,
if the artists painting did not sell, the painting would travel to the
next salon and the process would be repeated. For Hoffer, this suggested
an unsold painting would be subject to multiple varnishings, and the outer
surface of the painting would eventually obscure the image.
Initial works
(1996-1999) were created using traditional methods of varnishing. A damar
varnish was applied in multiple layers, often 10 to 15, over an extended
period of time. Paint was sometimes applied in between certain successive
layers creating a sense of depth and dimension.
It was later (2000) that
many of the paintings integrated a synthetic resin surface. This at first
was used as an outer shell to the piece. An epoxy and acrylic coating was
applied over the damar varnish, stablizing it and allowing for a much thicker
doming effect. The surface would now be raised from the painting by 1/8
of an inch to as thick as ½ inch.
Inconsistencies including discoloration
and surface cracking are intentional and integral to the resin paintings.
Many of these works have surfaces with various anomalies within the mixed
resins. Surfaces are often layered off center thereby exaggerating the
inconsistent topography. Random scratches, sporadic markings
and various abrasions may appear throughout the shell of these particular
works.
For
the artist, this sets up a necessary balance between the naturalness of
the painted and organic landscape and the artificial sense of the precious
“objet d’art.” A contrast is emphasized between the controlled hand of
the artist and the force of the material. In a sense, the painting adopts
certain characteristics of the landscape, forever changing and evolving
as material breaks down and alters composition.
On several pieces the works were subjected
to the extremely cold temperatures of the Quebec winter. The harsh
environment etches and stresses the thickly varnished painting prematurely
cracking the brittle varnish, and sometimes bleaching and altering the
structure of the surface.
The Landscape
Reference is made to theatrical backdrops. The rapid execution
of these paintings creates a generalized suggestion of a place or setting.
The viewer is both the actor in the scene and becomes
a player within a scenario where the trees and landscape are personified
and situated within the stages.
A notion of pending drama looms in the err
of these works. The time of day or location of the “self” are called into
question as the viewer sees beyond the distraction of the glossed surfaces.
Divided Surfaces
This current series of landscapes further exaggerates the separation
of scenic perspective through the literal division of the painting's surface.
Although the surfaces are divided into 2 or 3 sections, they are in fact
assembled and painted together.
When
assembled within an exhibition, the separation between each individual
piece falls into a chapter. A continuity is created through the play of
painted surface, against the parameter of each painting’s structure. When
one divided painting is positioned next to another, the part is seen as
a whole.