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Koo Schadler

Bio

Koo Schadler’s exquisitely detailed egg tempera paintings are in more than 350 private, corporate and museum collections worldwide. She is a board member of The Society of Tempera Painters, writes and lectures on egg tempera painting, and has taught dozens of egg tempera and old master painting workshops around the country. She is represented by the J. Cacciola Gallery in New York, NY, the Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, and is a master painter of the Copley Society of Art in Boston, MA. Her egg tempera book has been described as “one of the most concise and useful books on the art of egg tempera painting…should be on the bookshelf of every serious artist”.

Artist’s Statement

Egg tempera painting consists of three simple ingredients: powdered pigments, egg yolk and water. Paints are made fresh daily and applied to a panel covered with traditional, homemade gesso. The paint is applied in very thin, often transparent coats of pure color that dry to the touch within seconds. Scores of layers are needed to build up an image, and the result is a rich and luminous surface of many interacting hues.

Most of my paintings are egg tempera with oil glazes. When the work is nearly complete I apply four to eight thin coats of oil paint over the tempera. These glazes saturate and deepen the tempera color and result in a rich, glossy finish. In spite of the oil-like surface, my paintings are nearly all egg tempera.

My paintings are an opportunity for me to quietly observe nature. I place my observations in settings and still lifes taken from the work of Northern and Italian Renaissance painters. I borrow liberally from the composition, color and design of these masters. However the central cast of biblical characters is replaced by birds, bugs, frogs, terrapins, rabbits, or any other “fellow mortal” who endears himself to me. Animals, particularly the quiet and inconspicuous varieties, are among my favorite subjects. They are visually interesting and beautifully patterned; mysterious and unknowable; of infinite value to humans and the world at large. I enjoy placing them at center stage.

I like to paint humans as well. They do not come naturally arrayed in the beautiful fur, feathers and decorative patterns of the animal kingdom; but the subtleties of flesh, facial expressions and softly gesturing hands are equally wonderful to depict. As with the animals, I place my human models in classical, Renaissance inspired settings. I chose such settings not out of an abstract loyalty to the past, but simply out of love for the great beauty of old master painting. My hope, in my portraits of people, is to convey not only something of the character of the sitter, but also to render a purely pleasing feast for the eyes.

www.kooschadler.com

Classes taught by Koo Schadler