Cuscuna, Lisa

Pouring thinned oil paint has been a part of my painting style for more than 40 years. Sometimes the liquid paint is used as a foundation and then painted over with brush or palette knife. Other times the entire canvas is made only with poured paint. The flow of the paint is manipulated by  the tilting and adjusting of the canvas. Some colors are poured together but often one set of colors is left to dry before another is applied. Later enhanced with brushwork and palette knife these paintings often resemble landscapes. Others are simply a composition of color and texture.  

In the Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time an article was written about Cuscuna's work, "Cuscuna has been delving deeply into the concept of “poured painting” in recent work. Instead of using a brush, an artist working with this technique pours paint onto a canvas and builds a new work layer by layer. The process of pouring and then being forced to wait for the next step has bolstered Cuscuna’s belief in the union of art and zen and other practical aspects of life. During the required pauses to allow each layer of oil paint to dry, she is able to (think deeply about the next step, or) shift gears to her volunteer (and other) work.