Mike Rooney – Tropical Luminosity, March 7th, 2020

For Rooney, painting is about the process, first and foremost.

He relates, “experimenting keeps me fresh! I get bored if I’m not moving out of my comfort zone.”

Experimenting with applying the paint with different tools, as diverse as dry wall tools and cake servers as painting knives, he thinks of the mark that needs to be made, and what would best make that mark. Whether it be his finger, a brush, or the side of an old credit card. Maybe on today’s painting he will use lots of scribbly pencil lines underneath transparent layers of color. What would grease pencil look like on top of that? He wants to know. Some plaster of Paris mixed with the oil paint might make some interesting texture if it is carved into later with that same pencil.

He says it would be too much like a “real job” to paint the same way every day.

The resulting painting is what’s left after the experiment. Thinking of things as jigsaw puzzle shapes of value, arranged in a pleasing composition, is what forms the framework for painting the very recognizable objects to come.  What comes out of these experimental sessions in the studio, are paintings of coconut palms, Florida Keys waterfronts, old Key West homes, and scenes from his visits to Old Havana.

Also of interest to Rooney is the pervading light and atmosphere of the scene, whether it be the tropical, smoky humidity seen on the waterfront at dusk in the expansive Middle Keys landscape or the crisp, clear, vibrant atmosphere of early morning Old Town Key West. Attention to subtle nuances of color and value, assure that the viewer of the painting can easily tell what time of day it was and what the atmospheric conditions were.

Experimenting with color is this artist’s other passion.   Rooney has long been interested in the Cape Cod School of Art movement with roots all the way back to Provincetown, Mass. In the early 1900’s.  A colorist at heart, he experiments with color relationships and not being literal with the color of his subjects.  He may see blue-green in an object but changes that to violet, knowing that this will cause a “glow” in that area, a visual stimulation. Most skies and water are thinly applied over pink. “It’s there”, he says, “you just have to look hard to see it”.

Unexpected processes and color are this artist’s stock in trade. What is left over after he’s done, are shimmering depictions of his favorite tropical vignettes from his home in the Florida Keys.

His show opens March 7th, 5:00-8 at Gallery on Greene, 606 Greene St. in Key West. 305-304-2323

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