DeKALB – Local artist Eileen Bosic will exhibit oil pastel paintings at The Art Box, 308 E. Lincoln Highway in downtown DeKalb, Feb. 3 through 28. The opening reception is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 3. 

Bosic, who lives in DeKalb, has studied art most of her life, beginning with oil painting and later transitioning to acrylic. For the last seven years, she has enjoyed the supportive and encouraging class environment needed to explore oil pastels at The Fine Line Creative Art Center in St. Charles. Because oil pastels have given her both a freedom and creative spirit she had never experienced with other media, she is now painting exclusively in oil pastel. 

Bosic selects an arbitrary color palette and uses scraping techniques to create implied forms and sensuous textures. Most of her paintings are landscapes – that often include barns she finds in and around the DeKalb area – and still lifes. She has a unique color interpretation developed in the studio from the use of Holbein and Senneilier oil pastels, used in conjunction with Winsor Newton Liquin to create a deep-colored under-painting which is then developed through many layers of oil pastel from dark to light.