Local artist Tinuviel Sampson currently has her artwork on display at the Berwick Public Library. Tinuviel paints using egg tempera, a nearly obsolete technique. According to Tinuviel, egg tempera "uses egg yolk, pure ground pigments, and water. It dries nearly as fast as it is applied and eventually cures into a very hard film. The yellow color of the yolk dissipates leaving behind the purity of the pigments."
She further explains that "the first written recipes for egg tempera were in Il Libro dell’Arte by Cennino Cennini ca 1400 even though the medium had been used for hundreds of years. It is theorized that the Ancient Greeks may have used an egg binder for their paintings; possibly also the Egyptians. By the end of the 16th century, egg tempera had fallen out of use, supplanted by newly developed oil paints and techniques. In my first years of art school, I was drawn to egg tempera by the paintings from the attempted revival of the medium by the American painters of the early 20th century: O. Louis Gugliemi, Paul Cadmus, Jacob Lawrence. I love the simplicity of the process, the clear, true pigments, and the quiet, still mood it invokes despite the subject matter."
Tinuviel has been painting all her life and has attended art school at Massachusetts College of Art, the University of New Mexico, and Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. Her artwork is inspired by the chickens she raises at her home in Southern Maine, where she also has ducks, cats, and lots of gardens.
Check out Tinuviel's Etsy shop HERE to view and purchase and her artwork. Stop by the library anytime during our regular hours to view her work, which will be on display through the month of October. Tinuviel is generously donating 20% from any sales made during her exhibition at the library.
The library is open from 9:30am to 7:30pm on Tuesdays and Wednesday and 9:30am to 1:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays.