Candace Compton Pappas

“I work at home in Michigan, in a studio overlooking a beautiful landscape with a lot of bird and wildlife activity. My work is influenced by this landscape, as well as the quiet and space that surrounds me in my studio. 

Most small paintings are on cement that has been troweled into a wood frame. I use acrylics, inks, oils, stains, and glues which are layered, sanded and glazed over many times.  Larger works have a ground that is heavily textured with clay, plaster, acrylic mediums, and thick paint. 

I work with imagery that is close to me. The birds outside my studio have shown me what flight and return, character and persistence can be. Chairs represent a solitary place, a throne, a place to land. Houses are templates, made of solid or disintegrating cement, as well as wax, raising questions of permanence and light.

The search for home, both literally in my surroundings, and metaphorically in my Self has been a constant theme underlying my work.”