Michener Exhibit Featuring Egg Tempera Paintings Debuts Saturday

A new Michener Art Museum exhibit, "Mavis Smith: Hidden Realities," captures atmospheres of the mind, according to a press release from the museum.

Imagine that "You’re strolling down a busy sidewalk, absorbed in your thoughts. Suddenly someone walking the other way glances in your direction, you glance back, and your reverie is broken. Two souls meet, briefly, then the moment passes, and without breaking stride you each walk on."

This moment is what Smith hints at in her Egg Tempera paintings. The exhibit will be on display in the Fred Beans Gallery from Jan. 14 thorugh May 20.

Smith, a Bucks County resident, creates images like single frames of a movie with no beginning and no end, the press release explained.

"I am trying to create an atmosphere from my mind," she said. "I don't start with a firm concept. Your mind is open and you go into a trance and the ideas come in. I start out with a face or pose that intrigues me; then once I am caught up in the physical execution of the piece, other elements of the composition suggest themselves. The background elements usually evolve after I start painting."  

Egg tempera is a style that involves building up hundreds of translucent layers, which Smith studied at the Seattle Academy of Fine Art. Egg tempera is made from powdered pigment and egg yolk mixed up fresh daily and it dries quickly, so up to 100 layers can be added in a day. The style has been used by artists such as Botticelli, Vermeer and Andrew Wyeth, according to the release.

"I've always been fascinated by the technique, having seen it at the Metropolitan Museum and at the Uffizi [in Florence],” she explained. "Each layer is pure color, and every layer affects the one beneath."

Organized by the Michener Art Museum, "Mavis Smith: Hidden Realities" samples a range of Smith’s work, including both paintings and works on paper as well as figurative images, still lifes, and her most recent images of twisted and convoluted tree branches.

In addition to the exhibit, Smith will present a , and a . To register for those events, call 215-340-9800.

The Museum is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,
Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday noon to 5 p.m.