Spring Release: Spring in Portland with Ant DNA

Sam Roloff’s “Springtime in Portland with Ant DNA” is a brilliant expression within a new genre of art called “Back-story Underpainting”.

The idea originated in Sam Roloff’s studio as he began layering multiple paintings sequentially on a single canvas. Hidden, within each finished work of art, is a multilayered collection of paintings.

Each under-work as well as the outer surface has an associated tale or back-story represented by the artist in written word and digital photography. The underpaintings are often edgy, controversial, and even shocking. These secretive expressions of the artist are then hidden one by one and finally sealed with a gorgeous surface-work.

The final product in “Springtime in Portland with Ant DNA” is a frothy, whipped up cross-section of spring essence. Teeming with particles and sweeping elements, the image sprays and churns in a lively textured rubbing of life. It contains the ethereal elements of air, water, earth, and fire and captures not only real flying ants, but Spring fever itself!

The back-story includes a winter’s tale, the occurrence and mending of trauma to the canvas, ant specimens under glaze, and Sam Roloff’s personal documentation of his stepwise process in the studio. Fascinating.

This photo was taken seconds after the glaze was applied, you can still see the bubble. Later this bubble popped. 

This photo was taken just days after the glazes were apllied. The glazes were a mix of Gamblin Refined Linseed Oil and Neo Megilp. Each layer was first poured directly on the painting and then the canvas had to be lifted and moved around to get the medium to cover the area. This leaves the glazes brush stroke free. When the light is just right you can easly see the reflective light on the heavier glazed areas. This pulls the view into a relationship to the surface. 

 After all the oil was dry the artist then applied a few thin layers of yellow with a large amount of linseed oil giving the painting a wonderful transulcient quality. The painting is seen here on the far wall of the studio on Flotoma Drive Portland Oregon.

The artist then added a blue sky to lighten the feel of the painting. Below you can see that the paint was appliedby dripping the oil on with a brush while the paiting lay flat on the studio floor. 

The materials used here are natural, unbleached 8 oz. cotton duck is stretched around specially designed, kiln-dried stretcher bars, and held in place with a flexible spline allowing these canvases to be painted on all four edges as well as the canvas surface. The surface is triple-acrylic primed, acid-free, and staple-free on the sides. The Gallery canvas features a thick 1-1/2" edge.