Page 19 - The Noise November 2016

Envelope
Pause West
ERICA VHAY COVER ARTIST
Friday night the hubster and I stopped in at Brix restaurant for a long overdue date night/early anniversary celebration. When I walked in the front door I was immedi- ately struck by two small oil paintings in the entry way. They seemed floral, but an
unusual close-up cropping of a floral design. As we were seated in the front dining room I looked around some more and was mesmerized by the paintings on the wall. All of the paintings were by Erica Vhay. I had to find out more about this artist.
Looking at Ms. Vhay’s paintings, I was struck by the way several remind me of what might be thought of as bad snapshots. The photos of people where you don’t quite catch the moment you mean to catch. As if the camera went off as someone was approaching the chair where they are going to sit in for a portrait, but instead of taking the traditional forward facing or 1/4 turn to one, the subject is only half-way in the frame moving towards the chair. Or sitting on the arm of the chair, turned away. This unusual framing/cropping has a multifaceted effect. To start with it lends a casual, informal feeling which is often absent in the field of oil painting, which can sometimes be more formal and predictable.
Ms. Vhay’s portraits on the other hand feel so fresh, casual and every day. Many of her paintings have a surprising amount motion in them. Vital, for instance is of a woman in a flowing black dress, spinning. The flare and flutter of the fabric are the main focus of the painting, particularly because the head of the subject is out of frame. This again reminds me of someone taking a “bad” snapshot on a camera, but how unusual for this to be the subject of an oil painting. It is beautiful and captivating, just the motion of the body and the fabric trailing behind.
Another portrait, Sunday, has the appearance of intending to be a more traditional portrait, but again the person behind the camera “slipped up” and cut off the head. So what you see is a neck stretching up to the top of the panel, and below it the shoulders and chest of a woman wearing a necklace with one hand reaching up to touch her collar, a large ring on her middle.
BY JEN TURRELL
On the subject of unusual cropping and framing in her paintings Ms. Vhay said “I strive to capture candid moments from life in my work. These moments catch people doing something - often doing the mundane tasks of life that we can immediately relate to. I am captivated by these beautiful moments because of their unselfconsciousness and for the unique composition that is authentic to the moment and uncensored.”
She went on to say, “I am drawn to interesting cropping for more than one reason. When catching a glimpse of someone, it is often a partial image: a woman passing through a door or snippet of someone pulling their hair back seen through a window. Also, this atypical cropping is a composition technique drawn from my graphic design experience. If you look through wired magazine or other contemporar y graphic media, you will see a similar approach.”
From reading Ms.Vhay’s impressive biography, I saw that she has worked in different mediums over time, from drawing to sculpture and graphic design to oil paints. So I asked her why she has chosen oil paints to focus on new. She said that while she reserves the right to work in any medium at any time.
“Oil paints are just plain fun! I put the paint on the canvas and leave each stroke as it was applied. This honors the direct quality of the paint and my process. Some of my current abstract work are done in one long stretch. I don’t go back to rework the piece. How I am feeling on that day, that moment, can be seen in the brushstrokes: cautious or brave, random or studied. Some days I feel impatient – and I can see that in the work as well. Sometimes these are the best paintings! I believe art is more powerful if the viewer can see evidence of the painter in the work.”
Ms. Vhay has an upcoming show at Marshall Gallery in Scottsdale which opens Jan 12, 2017. She also has an ongoing show at Brix in Flagstaff. Learn more about Ms. Vhay and see images of her art at www.ericavhay.com.
19 • NOVEMBER 2016