Marin portrait artist’s work comes to Tiburon Town Hall

Artist Tyler Willis used gold leaf to form the halo in this recently completed oil painting of the Virgin Mary, one of the works featured in his ‘Portraits’ exhibit opening July 6 at Tiburon Town Hall. At left, ‘Twins’ is a pair of portraits built up over seven alternating layers of epoxy resin and paint.

Brazilian American artist Tyler Willis says he likes to experiment. One day, he decided to see if he could get more depth in his paintings by using epoxy resin. He grabbed two wooden panels, painted an acrylic background on each and poured a layer of epoxy over that.

When the epoxy dried, he painted a face on each panel then poured a second layer of epoxy over that. After alternating pouring epoxy and painting the same face for seven layers, Willis felt the paintings were finished.

“It turned out to be pretty cool,” says Willis, 34. “It really did look three-dimensional.”

The experiment was successful, but he hasn’t tried it again since. Epoxy is “very messy,” he notes.

Still, those two paintings, named “Twins,” are among his favorites and will be part of “Portraits,” a Tiburon Town Hall exhibit of the Marin-based artist’s works set to run July 6-Aug. 30. An artist’s reception is set for 6-8 p.m. July 14.

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