About Tiffani Buteau

Seattle Aquarium Splash Gala Auction May 2019

Gig Harbor Art Fair Exhibition July 2019

Bainbridge Island Library Artist of the Month June 2020

I'm eternally in awe of not just the beauty that exists in nature but the laws that govern that beauty. The same laws that captivate us with a sprawling sunset (something quite large, also beguile us with the magnificence of a nebula (something mind-boggling huge) or with the inner structure of the cells in a leaf (something quite small). There is a beauty that belies itself as chaos all around us. I work in resin for this very reason. As I pour and manipulate the thick liquid resin, for a moment in time I experience, like a fleeting sunset, the beauty that the laws of physics creates on the canvas, just before it disappears and reinvents itself, settling on the final outcome of the painting. As a former surfer, this reminds me of lying on the board in the water and catching a glimpse of a never to be replicated moment where a small wave peaks and crests and water foams about only to disappear. I want to capture moments tied in their core to nature on a canvas. Resin lets me freeze those moments in time.

What is Resin?

Resin is like a liquid glass. It is a two-part epoxy that once mixed, starts to harden within the hour. 

I mix resin with various pigments and then work with a blowtorch and knife to paint these scenes. 

Some paintings have up to 5 layers of resin, each taking 72 hours to fully cure. You can see through the layers like looking through glass or water. Once cured, it is brilliantly shiny like glass and also robustly durable like a countertop. Resin is so durable it is even used to make surfboards using similar processes as to how I create my paintings.