New alt_space Exhibition in March February 18 2021

SPENCER PETTIT
Prints and Plates

March 6 - April 10, 2021
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 6, 4-7 PM

Image: Spencer Pettit, Cassis, France, monotype print,  26 x 20 inches

About the Exhibition

Spencer Pettit is an artist based in Mount Dora that enjoys experimenting with a range of processes and techniques.  He states, “As a painter, I place more emphasis on the process and the act of artistic creation than the finished work.  Each painting is the beginning of a new experiment. Art is a constantly evolving process of discovery and invention.”

For his first exhibition at Arts on Douglas, Pettit presents a series of monotype prints and plates depicting scenes from his various travels, such as a row of boats along a dock in his piece Cassis, France, or the shapes of ice skaters in a rink set against the city skyline in Ice Skating, NY. While each monotype is based on realism, the end result is a more expressionistic, sometimes completely abstracted.

Image: Spencer Pettit, Ice Skating, NY, monotype print, 26 x 20 inches

Monotypes involve applying paint directly to a plate which is then run through a press to transfer the ink onto paper, creating a one-of-a-kind mirror image.  This is one of the simplest forms of printmaking and is inherently unique because only one impression can be pulled before the ink is depleted. By applying different viscosities of oil paint in layers on the same plate, monotypes produce a complex impression with a distinct and transparent layered quality that is not achievable otherwise. While working with this process, Pettit noticed, in many cases, the “spent plate” was also a piece of art.  He explains, “the texture created from pulling the plate away from the paper’s surface produced an image that could not have been made any other way.”  And thus, he realized that both the prints and the plates were important to include in this exhibition.

About the Artist

Spencer Pettit graduated from Ringling School of Art in 1979 and worked as an Illustrator and Graphic Artist until 1985. He spent the next 10 years as an art director with two Orlando advertising agencies. His job as an art director overlapped with his personal pursuits as a fine artist, and he began exhibiting work throughout Central Florida in addition to opening two small art galleries.