Jeff Kowatch, born in California in 1965, has lived and worked in Brussels since the early 2000s. He develops into a colorist under the influence of the great American abstract painters, from Mark Rothko to Brice Marden. As far as his technique is concerned, he was inspired by the Flemish masters, but especially Rembrandt. When he finds his recipe for linseed oil, he starts to focus on the glaze, a technique that gives his work a special depth and transparency and was a hallmark of 17th-century Flemish painting.
In the series of drawings he uses the same creative process on paper as on canvas: dozens of layers of color on top of each other, systematically scraped off for months and painted over until the artwork is finished. Kowatch works on several pastels at the same time by gradually building up the color and intensity, like the different voices of the same score.
In addition to this technique, Jeff Kowatch is now evolving towards large formats in oil on Dibond, which is a major and very striking innovation. Due to the innovative use of this Plexiglas and aluminum substrate, on which photos are normally printed, Kowatch is no longer bound by the limitations of the paper and the frame behind glass for his pastels. This allows him to create larger compositions, where the work remains uncovered and his strokes come into their own. The vibrant colors of the oil bars used (oil paint in rod form) lend themselves perfectly to the raw energy of the creation that Kowatch unleashes in these recent works.