Praeterita

Manhattan Sky , oil on canvas, wax and gold leaf, 24 inches x 48 inches x 2 inches Part 44 of an interview series in which artists reply to the same six questions. Lorelei French Sowa is a painter located in Florida, USA. Her paintings, whether they refer to landscape, birds, or abstract patterns, are marked by a strong sense of shape, bold execution, and multilayered textures of paint or collage. You can see more of her work here . Philip Hartigan : What medium/media do you chiefly use, and why? Lorelei French Sowa : Paint is my primary medium, but within the scope of 2D, I vacillate between acrylics and oil. I love the problem-solving that 2D provides. The world is full of depth and shapes, and organizing that space on a flat panel and understanding the limitations and the possibilities of the medium paint requires intense creativity. The problem of how to depict something is an interesting one. There are a thousand and one ways you can go about it. There's no set rule. Philip Ha

 I was visiting Barcelona, Spain, between April 26 and May 5 --- my first return visit since I lived there in the mid-1990s. The occasion was for my wife, Patty, and I to celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary. I could write many blog posts about this trip, from the waves of nostalgia that swept over me, the return to familiar haunts, the new things I saw and did with Patty as we created our own memories together (it was her first time in Barcelona).  For now, I'm considering the work I saw in the Joan Miro museum, and in particular his prints. I've never been much of a fan of Miro's work --- the whimsy often obscures the inventiveness for me --- but I remember being struck by the lithographs when I used to come to the museum a quarter of a century ago (free entry with my student ID). Seeing them again, I was still as taken with them as I was back then. The selection in the museum consists of about 40 framed prints, arrange in two groups of 20, installed on the walls s