The words ?digital painting? belong together in Rev Stevens? unique world.
“Digital Painting,” a hybrid medium and the name of Stevens? latest exhibit is on display at C. Grimaldis Gallery.
Stevens, who leads the drawing and fine art departments at Maryland Institute College of Art, blends collage and digital media with a fervor.
If you have the compulsion to pick at a surface, Stevens? pieces won?t help your sanity. His use of tape urge you to touch the surfaces of his works.
What influences your color choices, specifically in The Boxer?
Most figurative artists [portray] boxers as skin tone [color.] I think you?re really seeing a certain amount of energy. [My digital paintings] strip away the idea of flesh. Strength and speed are particular colors. One guy no matter what his size would have a certain punch, leg strength and foot speed, and a color represent to represent it … Color and staying on top of it is very important thing for me. I?m very connected to it and that comes from my connection with pop art and abstract expressionists.
What did printers and other advancements do for your work?
It was breakthrough for me to use technology to make prints larger and in multiples. Yet, I still feel like I’m painting when I?m making the collage because with paint you have a subject and then you lightly sketch it and add layers of color and texture until you come up with the final image. It?s the same process with collage. You?re ripping bits, adding color and transforming the pieces into a new world as you would a painting.
Where do you find your source material?
Vogue, Vanity Fair, L.A. Times ? whatever catches my eye, and pops out at me. I don?t limit myself to them. But I am a slave to Vogue. It?s something about its color that I can?t shake. As a painter using digital technology, I wanted choose my subjects as I do when I paint. Some are classical still life, figures, interiors etc. or combinations of all things.
IF YOU GO
Digital Painting
» Where: C. Grimaldis Gallery, 523 N. Charles St., Baltimore
» Size Range: 30-inches by 40-inches to 44-inches by 65-inches
» Price Range: $4,000 to $5,500
» Info: 410-539-1080
