Abstract Painting - Veil #2 by James Edward Scherbarth

Layers of white paint go on like plaster, leaving gaps where dark grids and a flash of cobalt blue show through.

Veil #2 is an abstract painting in mixed media on paper by James Edward Scherbarth, dated 2020 and signed and dated 09-23-2020 on the verso. Scraping and overpainting are favored methods for building a sense of depth in abstraction, since each layer half-hides the one before. A tall block of chalky white and gray fills the sheet, worked thickly with a palette knife or scraper. Underneath, black grid marks and loose lines emerge, and a patch of bright blue breaks through near the lower center. The edges feather out to bare paper. It is 7 inches wide and 10 high.

The veil is doing its job, mostly.