Midnight Roses

Gift of Carol Quillen, 18th President of Davidson College, and George McLendon

Espada’s style incorporates bold, gestural strokes and thick, black lines that mirror notable features of expressive abstract paintings. A newer style most recently showcased in 2021 explores different stylistic techniques to employ the same vibrant, energetic paintings. Both styles are uniquely Espada as he continues to blend media and experiment with various materials to create his compositions. Midnight Roses is of particular interest as it seems the painting is almost caught in between the two distinct styles. The painting contains the vibrant use of colors, illustrated in the artist’s choice of the magenta and a slightly deeper Carolina blue. The thick contours cut across the canvas to create a sense of movement and energy. The painting feels layered, as if the roses were placed onto the line-maze landscape behind it. The work uses acrylic paints, which is a shift from his earlier use of oil, but not yet entirely a mixed media composition as in his later works.