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Archive for April, 2015

Comes the Light

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on April 6, 2015| 4 Comments »

GC Myers Comes the Light sm

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

-Helen Keller

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This is a new painting that is headed with me to the Kada Gallery in Erie for the 1 PM Gallery Talk this coming Saturday, April 11.  This 20′ by 24″ canvas is titled Comes the Light and speaks to a recurring theme in my work, our capacity to endure darkness and find peace within even in those times when we find ourselves immersed in the darkness.

Reading the quote above from Helen Keller, who knew darkness and silence more than any of us can imagine, after finishing this piece made me think about my reactions to my own periods of darkness, how it was often a period filled with fear and panic — manic flailing  at things, most made greater in my imagination, that  I could not see in the momentary blackness.

But time can be a great teacher and one learns that there is nothing gained in striking out at unseen demons.  Patience and calm replace panic and fear when the realization comes that light usually follows the dark.  It becomes easier to accept and endure the inevitable darkness that we all find ourselves in occasionally.

And that is what I see in the Red Tree here– an enduring  figure who accepts the darkness calmly,  knowing the light soon comes.

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Resurrection Shuffle

Posted in Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , on April 5, 2015| 3 Comments »

Giovanni-Bellini- The Resurrection 1475It’s Easter Sunday.  As I’ve pointed out here in the past, I had no religion of any sort in my upbringing so Easter was  a holiday marked by coloring eggs and eating big chunks of chocolate rabbits and multi-colored jelly beans for somewhat vague reasons.  Most things came down to the food involved for me in my youth.

Of course, I picked up on the tales behind the religious holidays I had eaten my way through as a kid.  And it’s hard to not be moved by the tale of the Resurrection, even from a decidedly non-religious perspective.  Whether you are a believer or non-believer, the tale of rebirth creates a template of hope for all people so that they may endure the many hardships of this life and rebuild new lives from failed pasts.

And it takes on even more significance when that new life is devoted to some purpose that is greater than our own needs.

The painting at the top is The Resurrection, painted by the great Giovanni Bellini, my favorite Renaissance painter, around 1479.  Just a beautiful piece, as most of his work is.

It being Sunday, it’s time for a little music.  I thought I would continue the theme of Resurrection into the music today.  Of course, after seeing this video, some of you might put me down as some sort of heretic.  It’s a song called The Resurrection Shuffle which was  a minor Trans-Atlantic hit in the early 70’s for a British band called Ashton, Gardner & Dyke.  It wasn’t a big hit, maybe just into the top 40, but I remembered the chorus.  Looking it up this morning I came across this version from Cher‘s self-titled television show in 1976 that features her in a duet with Tom Jones, who performed the song in his act for many years.  Maybe it is heresy but it made me laugh if only for the visual impact.  Maybe it will make you smile as well.

Have a great Sunday.

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Making Contact

Posted in Painting, Technique/History, Work In Progress, tagged , , , , on April 3, 2015| 7 Comments »

GC Myers- Away From the Chaos smI mentioned here earlier that I am giving a Gallery Talk next Saturday at the Kada Gallery in Erie.  When I give one of theses talks it is not uncommon for me to bring a small group of new work for the gallery. One of the pieces that is heading to Erie with me is this painting, a 24″ by 20″ canvas that is titled Away From the Chaos.

Actually, I should say that it was titled Away From the Chaos.

You see, this painting started its life several years ago in  a much different form.  It was a piece that showed just once for a very short stay in a gallery then moved to the wall of my studio where it has been ever since.  It was one of those pieces that seemed to be right  in the moment but was just missing that something which  kept me from making contact with it.  It was like a person who has experienced a stroke and has full cognizance with much to share but just can’t make the person in front of them understand.

And I was that person who couldn’t understand.  I could see there was something in it.  Life and emotion.  But  muted and totally restrained.  The colors of its sky felt pointy and sharp to me–a sickly yellow that  didn’t add depth in the image and gave the whole thing a green pallor that belied what I felt was the emotion behind the painting.

So for years, I would go into the room that held this painting and feel a sickening, uneasy pang whenever my eyes settled on it.  It made me sad that it seemed there physically but was so far away.

Finally, a week ago, I could take it no more and decided to either revive it or kill it.  The sky transformed in depth and color, becoming warmer and more giving.  The fields brightened.  The brightness of its color and the roof line of the barn changed as I altered one edge that always felt wrong to me– a small flaw but one that became larger when combined with the others.

And the Red Tree made its way to a central point where it truly became the welcoming symbol that I often see it as.  It suddenly felt so much more alive and complete.  It could reach out now and communicate to me.  And that’s a comforting thing for me.

The old title no longer seemed appropriate.  I settled on Making Contact.  Now it seems right.

Away From the Chaos -evoltion

 

This painting can be seen  at the Kada Gallery next Saturday, April 11, where I will be giving a Gallery Talk which begins at 1 PM.  If you can make it, please stop in– we will be having a free drawing for one of my original paintings and a few other goodies.  I am aiming for an entertaining and , hopefully, an enlightening talk. Hope to see you there.

 

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Quote of the Week/ Chagall

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Painting, Quote, tagged , , , , , , , on April 2, 2015| 1 Comment »

Marc Chagall Sun of ParisWhen I am finishing a picture I hold some God-made object up to it / a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand / as a kind of final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If there’s a clash between the two, it is bad art.

–Marc Chagall

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I haven’t mentioned Marc Chagall  here but once over the 6+ years I have been doing this blog and I very seldom list him as one of my influences or even one of my favorite artists.   But somehow he always seems to be sitting prominently there at the end of the day, both as a favorite and an influence.

One way in which his influence takes  form is in the way in which he created a unique visual vocabulary of symbology within his work.  His soaring people, his goats and horses and angels all seem at once mythic yet vaguely reminiscent of our own dreams, part of each of us but hidden deeply within.

They are mysterious but familiar.

marc-chagall-fishermans-family-1968And that’s a quality– mysterious and familiar– that I sought for my own symbols: the Red Chair, the Red Tree and the anonymous houses, for examples.  That need to paint familiar objects that could take on other aspects of meaning very much came from Chagall’s paintings.

He also exerted his influence in the way in which he painted, distinct and as free-flowing as a signature.  It was very much what I would call his Native Voice.  Not affected or trying to adhere to any standards, just coming off his brush freely and naturally.

An organic expression of himself.  And that is something I have sought since I first began painting– my own native voice, one in which I painted as easily and without thought as I would write my signature.

  So to read how Chagall judged his work for authenticity makes me consider how I validate my own work.  It’s not that different.  I use the term a sense of rightness to describe what I am seeking in the work which is the same sense one gets when you pick up a stone and consider it.  Worn through the ages, untouched for the most part by man, it is precisely what it is.  It’s form and feel are natural and organic. There is just an inherent  rightness to it.  I hope for that same sense when I look at my work and I am sure that it is not far from the feeling Chagall sought when he compared his own work to a rock or a flower or his own hand.

Marc Chagall Song of Songs

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Instant Inspiration

Posted in Influences, Motivation, Neat Stuff, Photography, tagged , , , , on April 1, 2015| 6 Comments »

Trey Ratcliff - china-deep-in-the-guangxi-provinceSometimes you can look at something and it immediately translates into something for you, something from which  you can take inspiration and  make something new.  That’s what came to mind for me when I came across this great image from photographer Trey Ratcliff.  It’s a panoramic view of a fairytale-like  landscape in the Guangxi region of  China that he took after scaling a peak similar to those you see in the photo.

It’s just a great image, one that gets my motor racing.  I immediately find myself comparing it to my own landscapes, noting  how the forms flow together to create a wonderful rhythm in the image.  There’s so much that will easily convey into my own work that it is in place before I really have time to think about it.  It’s like a jolt of creative electricity.  I just need to get to the easel before it rolls to the back of the line of imagery that is formed in my head.

For more of Trey Ratcliff’s incredible photograph’s from around the world, visit his website Stuck in Customs.  And check out the image shown above on Google+— it’s a 19,000 pixel  high def shot that is fully zoomable so that  you can fly in and out of the little valleys in the distance.  Pretty remarkable.

 

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