An exhibition of new work by Birmingham, Alabama artist Donny Finley opens Thursday, February 9, at DeBruyne Fine Art in Naples. Finley is one of the rare artists who still works in egg tempera.
Said to date back to prehistoric times, egg tempera is one of art's most durable and versatile mediums. Unaffected by humidity or temperature changes, tempera emulsions form their own protective film and do not darken with age as oil paints do.
Tempera dries rapidly and becomes water-resistant, which means one application of paint can be rapidly followed with another without the two layers mixing. This unique property is a distinct advantage over ordinary watercolors in that a wash of a different color may be applied over the original color without the two colors mixing to form a third.
But it was this aspect that led to the medium's demise in the early 15th century.
Back then, paintings had a stiff, two-dimensional look to them. Then Jan van Eyck came along and figured out that if he could blend or shade two adjoining colors, he could achieve greater depth, dimension and tonal contrasts (known as chiaroscuro). But he could not get those results with the quick-drying egg base that artists of his day used to dissolve their pigments. So van Eyck substituted oil for egg.
Van Eyck quickly discovered that the oil-based emulsion allowed him to work more slowly and accurately. In fact, his contemporaries were so shocked by the photographic accuracy of the works he turned out (like Adoration of the Lamb (better known as the Ghent Altarpiece) and The Betrothal of the Arnolfini) that they all but abandoned egg tempera as a painting medium (the sole exception being Renaissance artists, who sometimes used egg tempera as the underpainting for their compositions).
Although Finley works primarily in oil today, he has resurrected the ancient medium, and his new exhibit at DeBruyne includes a handful of striking egg tempera pieces - panel paintings such as Little Women, Basket Full, Refuge and Sighting. Paintings such as these provide an interesting modern-day contrast to works in oil on canvas and on panel, and it is worth the drive to DeBruyne just to see if you can tell the two apart.
For more information about Donny Finley or his exhibition, please contact Gallery Directors Kate Bauer or Michael Galati at 239-262-4551 or visit the gallery online at www.debruynefineart.com. DeBruyne Fine Art is located at 275 Broad Avenue South in Old Naples on the boulevard affectionately called Gallery Row.
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