Celtic Connection by James Edward Scherbarth

Three black bars and a field of scraped gray, all of them in quiet conversation.

Celtic Connection is a painting by James Edward Scherbarth (1949-2021), dated 2015. It is oil and cold wax on cradle board, signed and dated en verso. Cold wax mixed with oil paint lets an artist build up, scrape back and texture a surface in layers, much as encaustic painters do with hot wax. Here a pale gray ground is dragged and incised into fine horizontal striations, with darker paint showing through the scratches. Three solid black blocks sit at the edges, one at top right, one at left and one at bottom right. It is 36 inches wide and 30 high.

Very little is said, and all of it carefully.