Courtesy (Left) ‘La Esperanza' illustrates the control over color that egg tempera allows artist Alex Garcia to have. He mixes new paint before every painting session. (Middle) ‘La Despedida,’ or ‘The Farewell,’ by Alex Garcia. ‘El Viejo' by Garcia. Egg tempera, Garcia's paint of choice, is made by mixing egg yolks, distilled water and dry colored pigments.

WHO: Alex Garcia, 34

MEDIUM: Egg tempera on panels. Garcia mixes the tempera — made with egg yolks, distilled water and dry colored pigments — at each painting session. While not as popular a medium as oils or acrylic paints, egg tempera is Garcia's medium of choice because it allows him to build rich, luminous colors and vibrant surfaces. He also prepares his own wood panels, which he treats with a gesso of rabbit-skin glue, whiting (which includes marble dust) and water. “When you use tempera you're very into your materials, you have to make your panels and make your paint,” Garcia said. “It gives you a lot of control, and it becomes very personal. Everybody does it differently.”

BEST KNOWN FOR: Paintings of people — but don't call them portraits. Garcia takes photos of his subjects and, rather than copying them, uses them as “an emotional reference point that I can work from,” he said. The works “are not really about the people in the paintings. It's kind of about a feeling or a thought. The response I get is, ‘It makes me wonder what they're thinking.' That's what I'm going for, asking the viewer to ask questions about the person in the painting above and beyond how they look.”

BACKGROUND: Garcia was born in Puerto Rico but grew up in Allentown, Penn. He received his BFA in painting from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. He moved to San Antonio in November with his wife and three children.

PAYING THE BILLS: Garcia works as a designer, including Web and print design.

INFLUENCES: Seeing the tempera paintings of Andrew Wyeth first inspired Garcia when he was in high school. He also counts George Tooker, Paul Cadmus and Jared French, magical realists who worked in egg tempera, among his influences.

CHECK HIM OUT: Garcia has work up in a group show at the new Mandala gallery, 1701 Blanco Road. Call (210) 347-5692.

Jessica Belasco | 210SA Contributor