71st Annual Juried Exhibition: Jeff Gola

Liquors by Jeff Gola

I consider my style as expressive realism. It’s a way of working that approaches a certain refinement in some areas but still does not hide the hand of the artist. Although I’ve been painting and drawing for most of my life in a variety of mediums, I’ve been using egg tempera as my primary medium for about 12 years.  I’m drawn to its clarity of color, its crispness and the meditative process that suits my temperament. 

Egg tempera is really not the medium for the quick, momentary impulse.  The process is slow and requires going over the same area many times, crosshatching the quick drying paint in many layers to develop form and to bring out the optical qualities that the medium is known for. Because of that and my attraction to scenes of fleeting light effects, I work on my tempera paintings in the studio, using my personal photos and often pencil sketches with notes. 

Photo courtesy of Jeff Gola.

The paintings are done on a panel usually made with hardboard and a coating of genuine gesso. The paint has to be made fresh with each session, as it is quick drying and does not store well in liquid form. Egg tempera paint consists of powdered pigments, water for a solvent, and the yolk of an egg for a binder. I mix these in a watercolor palette dish, and use a variety of brushes to thinly apply the nearly dry paint to the panel.

Because the tempera process is slow and requires going over the same area many times, the subject for one of these paintings requires elements that the artist finds personally evocative and that can serve as the focus of meditation for the time it will take to create it. Sometimes these thoughts can be directly related to the elements of the painting, but more often, they are memories and associations on a very personal level.

Sourlands by Jeff Gola

It takes me anywhere from 2 to 5 weeks to do a painting, generally working 5 days a week, 6 or 8 hours a day.  There’s often the question: “How many eggs does it take to make a painting?" I usually use 1 a day; perhaps 2 or 3 in a day if I’m doing a large area like a sky. 

Detail of Sourlands by Jeff Gola

by Jeff Gola 

For more information about Jeff Gola visit: www.jeffgola.com. Jeff Gola's work is featured in Woodmere Art Museum's  71st Annual Juried Exhibition,

About Woodmere's 71st Annual Juried Exhibition: 

Woodmere's 71st Annual Juried Exhibition, juried by artist Alex Kanevsky, will feature works in a variety of media from 46 artists living within 50 miles of the Museum. Works were chosen to create a cohesive presentation that explores contemporary ideas within the arts of Philadelphia. In conjunction with the juried show, Kanevsky's own work will be on view in the exhibition Alex Kanevsky: Some Paintings and Drawings, and the artist has also selected some of Woodmere's works of art for display in Selections from the Collection.