Joe Provey

I enjoy discovering new ways to paint, many of which can be seen in my recent series of seascapes and landscapes. My current fascination is with layering oil glazes over a “base painting” that has been roughed in with oils or acrylics. The underlying texture create unexpected and intriguing “surprises” when the glazes are applied.

Paints and mediums are applied with palette knives, rags, gloved fingers, and even eyedroppers … but almost never with a brush. In my work, wiping away paint is nearly as important as applying it. My goal is to paint in ways analogous to how light falls, how the sea moves, how trees grow, and how buds bloom. I like it best when a painting just happens without a lot of intervention from me.

My subjects are often from nature, especially the sea, beaches, trees, leaves, flowers, and stones. I strive toward presenting the natural beauty I see and feel. My paintings approach being abstract but always have a foot planted in “reality.”

Largely self-taught, I love to visit museums and galleries, and to discuss art with anyone who stops by my studio at the Nest Art Factory. In the distant past, I studied art history at Boston College and Brown University.