Mark Lovejoy (Born 1952) is a Texan artist who produces work that’s a bit mind boggling. What may first look like a complex digital render could also just be photographs of palettes that are thickly-painted. His images are a hybrid of myriad photographs of resins, paints, waxes, pigments and shot, reshot, manipulated and then retouched until the surface textures take a pleasing aesthetic form. Lovejoy says his works are not photographs of paintings. These images are of something as fleeting as any sunset or street scene – illuminated diluents, pigments, resins, extenders, oils, fillers, drying agents, waxes, etc. which have varying viscosities, miscibilities, tacks, surface textures, drying times, reflectance, etc. All images are made using white, CMYK, and in some cases gold and silver. He is primarily interested in abstraction. He has been experimenting for years with alternative photographic techniques in pursuit of the images that he is now making.
Abstraction allows a viewer to examine or at least avoid preconceived notions as to what something is supposed to be. Lovejoy works with, diluents, illuminated pigments, extenders, resins, fillers, oils, drying agents, waxes, etc. which, have varying viscosities, miscibilities, surface textures, tacks, reflectance, drying times etc., depending upon the mix. He makes all images using CMYK, white, and silver and gold in some cases. Lovejoy works from his studio in Alpine, Texas, where he creates richly textured images of mixed paint. Although Lovejoy is somewhat secretive about his process, what is clear is that they aren’t just photographs of mixed paint.
