I have always been a materials person. I began fooling around making pottery when I was fifteen and even applied to Alfred (“the” place to go for ceramics) but I ended up at Douglass College in the art department.
Eventually, I became more interested in clay as material.The first few pieces I made were individual objects made of bisqued clay.
“Patterns” 1978 L Pressman
“Random Pilings” 1978 L Pressman
Then I began using the unfired clay itself, combining it with wood that I got from my father’s lumber yard. I loved the yard with all the screws, nuts, paint chips and scraps of wood.
The Rack unfired clay and wood 1979
My father and I would go to the lumber yard and “take inventory ” on Sundays. Meaning that we would load up the car with wood scraps for
me to use in my work.
Appearances Can Deceive-View one and two, unfired clay and wood 1979 LPressman
In graduate school I made a few pieces with wood and plaster.
Plaster and Wood 1981 L Pressman
Then I discovered color and concentrated on painting.( it’s a good thing judging from these last two images)
one of the first paintings-1981 40 x 60 oil
Restraint oil and cold wax 42 x 52 1983 LPressman
Pink Rain oil and cold wax 48 x 70 oil 1989 L Pressman
Charcoal, pastel,oil paint, cold wax, collage -it all shows up in the work over the years.
I think the show Waxing Poetic at the Montclair Art Museum in 1999 was one that introduced me, along with many other artists to the possibilities of wax. Not long after that I took an encaustic workshop and fooled around with it for several years. I did a series of small works that combined encaustic and vintage postcards.
Arrived Allright 5 x7 encaustic L Pressman 2000
Japan encaustic 5 x7 L Pressman 2000
and I continued making paintings in oil.
Lower Depths mixed media 41 x 38 2005 L Pressman
Still 24 x24 oil on board,charcoal 2005 L Pressman
Several years ago the opportunity to teach encaustic came my way. So I traveled up to R&F Handmade Paints in Kingston, NY to hone my skills.
I did a five day “teaching workshop” with ten other artists.That session took my work in a whole other direction. Since then I have been working with encaustic primarily.
Circle encaustic 30×30 2007 L Pressman
#3 Moons encaustic 16 x16 2007 LPressman
It feels as though another shift is coming on in the studio. I just finished a commissioned oil painting and have another piece in the works that combines both encaustic and oil so……..we shall see…
Portal 2 oil 48 x 48 at Post 390, Boston
Meanwhile, I am pleased to announce that I am featured as Artist of the Month on the R and F website. They posted some images and an interview. One of the questions Laura, the gallery director asks is: If one could follow one your paintings as if it were a map, where do you imagine it would lead? That is a question to keep on trying to answer.
R & F Handmade Paints makes encaustic paint, sells encaustic supplies and offers workshops. It is a great place. All the people who work there are artists and the energy is a good one. Even if you don’t paint in encaustic if you are ever in Kingston, NY make a stop: watch how they make the paint; talk to the artists; look at the gallery; and buy some of those delicious pigment sticks to play with.