Josh Ferry
Josh Ferry is a young painter currently based in Portland, Maine, after living for 15 years in New York. His cross series is not necessarily religious, he says, he just finds the cross shape interesting and has explored the relationships between the shapes and how the eye changes it depending on the surrounding colours. He leaves it up to the viewer to put their own meanings onto his work.
His burnished acrylic paintings are very labor-intensive and he works on each painting for a few months. The burnishing process involves applying many layers of paint and sanding each layer in between coats. In this way, each section of the painting becomes its own miniature painting set off by a slight separation between the colours. The overall effect is almost one of tiles on a wall and the work has a subtle sheen to it.
Josh also does intense oil pastel drawings where he focuses on the pureness of colour and shapes. He has shown his work in Portland, Maine in several group shows and will have a solo show in the summer of 2014 in Belfast Maine. He is also featured in a new book about painters to watch and collect in Maine.
