PHOTOGRAPHY BY EVERETT SPRUILL

PHOTOGRAPHY with PASSION

If you're looking for Paintings, Collages, Graphics and Giclees by Everett Spruill just click here.

Everett also has an extensive collection of works by modern masters such as Dali, Calder, and Chagall.  You'll also find sports collectables and US stamps and coins. Check them out....click here.

 Artist Statement

My creations have been categorized as Contemporary / Abstract Mixed Media Collages.  I have three entirely different styles and use a wide variety of found objects, including, but not limited to, shells, magazine pages, tissue, postage stamps, various paint mediums, photographs, cut and torn hand-painted paper, air-brushed hand-cut silk-screens, drawings, and computer manipulated images.  Central themes for my creations are centered on Music (Jazz and Blues), African Cultures and the African-American Experience, and most of all “Family”.
 As a self-taught artist my techniques are the result and combination of extensive experimentation but mostly from studying works of great contemporary masters.  I always focus on the importance of drawing, composition, tone and mixing colors in each creation. Coupled with my own sense of color and design I soon developed my own distinctive style.
 Most of my creations begin with photographs or several thumbnail sketches. Harmony and contrast are also important qualities I want in my work and it becomes even more important in the works I call “Intuitive Creation” (Mindscapes, Tribal Rhythms and Middle Passages Series) because these images are created mainly by letting go of conscience thoughts and relying more on instinct. Because the steps are intuitive and emotional rather than cognitive, many times the exact processes are forgotten, the end result is therefore difficult to repeat. Nevertheless, I’m satisfied with a completed work when it consist of the all important variables of line, shape, color, texture, repetition, and balance.
 The creative processes for my “Intuitive Creations” follow a number of steps. I use gloss varnish to randomly adhere drawings, photos, postage stamps or torn and cut paper to the substrate. Transparent tissue is applied partially covering and connecting the first images.  Using a wet-on-wet technique, watercolor and acrylic washes and lines (mostly primary colors) are applied, allowing colors to run into each other, and partially covering and connecting the glued images and paper into a harmonious unit. To create a textural effect, clear acrylic gel is applied by knife and or scored or scraped into patterns and allowed to dry. I then Airbrush through several hand cut stencils to apply opaque symbols and designs that will unite the whole composition.  Accents and highlights are added with splattered and dripped acrylic paint. These steps are not always followed in this order, and some may not include all the elements mentioned.
 My representational images (Jazz and Blues and Family series) include combinations of the same techniques, materials and processes mentioned previously, however, the central figure begins with a drawing, usually from photos. Paper, fabric or photos are precisely cut to form the various sections of the image and or background and are glued together like a puzzle. Some are a combination of paint, paper and fabric.
 

I work only on archival acid-free mat boards, watercolor paper, and canvas.  Hardwood panels are sometimes used for smaller images and are triple primed and sealed with stain resistant varnish to prevent yellowing from the acids in the wood. Permanence and longevity of each work are a major concern, therefore every effort is taken to best preserve and protect the work by using archival paints (non-toxic) and substrates free of materials that shorten the life of the work.  Upon completion, each work is protected front and back first with a mat varnish and finally with a gloss acrylic varnish.