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Archive for the ‘Painting’ Category

In the Golden Light

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , on June 3, 2010| 2 Comments »

I’m in the last days of preparation for my show, Facets,  that opens June 11 in Alexandria, VA at the Principle Gallery.  Today I put on the final few hanging wires on the backs of the paintings, finish the necessary paperwork and documentation then wrap and load the paintings for tomorrow’s delivery.

This is often a hectic, anxious day but this year I find it strangely calm thus far.  Maybe it comes from the relief of seeing the endpoint in preparations for this show or perhaps it comes from finally seeing this group of work together, now fully framed and moved from raw images into their now presentable form. 

 Often a piece, especially one on paper, undergoes a  startling transformation once it is put in a setting for presentation.  I think of the painting as a gem of sorts and the matting and framing as the setting that holds this gem and allows it to be seen in its best light.  Sometimes a piece takes on a sparkle, a different life even, when seen in the setting of its frame rather than as a raw image on paper.  I see this often with Cheri when she will see a painting in the studio before framing and give little response then will react so much more stronglyand positively after it is fully presented. 

Seeing this group together and fully presented gives it a wholeness and allows me to see the continuity in it that I knew was there, which is reassuring.  It looks like it will hang together well and the pieces will play well off one another, each exhibiting its own individual strength and acting as a complement to those around it, reinforcing them.  There is a great blend in this group of boldness and softness, strong colors and muted tones.  Like the name of the show implies,  this group shows many of the facets of the body of my work to date.

The piece above, In the Golden Light, is part of this show.  It is a work on ragboard and measures a little over 11″ by 25” and is matted and presented in a 20″ by 34″ frame.  I think it’s a prototypical example of my work, one that strikes close to the core of everything I want to show and say in my work.  It’s a painting that flowed out easily and gracefully near the end of the final days of painting for this show, almost as though it were the final performance after months of dress rehearsals.  There was no struggle with this piece and there was a sense of a type of destiny in it even as the first section of paint began to dry.  I can’t fully explain this.  I used the word gracefully earlier in the paragraph and there was a type of grace in the painting of this, an ease of motion and a confidence that I seek yet seldom find, in my work or in my life.

I think I can say the same for much of this group of work.  I think there’s an ease and a confidence in this work that arises from coming to terms with where I am as a painter, reveling in what I am and setting aside concerns about what I am not.   I think it comes through quite evidently  in this show. 

At least it does for me.  I can’t predict what others might see…

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Best Case Scenario

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged on May 28, 2010| 2 Comments »

I’ve been hearing the term worst case scenario  an awful lot lately, certainly in conjunction with the Deepwater Horizon disaster.  We always profess to be prepared and at the ready should the worse happen.  But like so many things, this show of confidence is usually unjustified.  We rarely are able to visualize the worse that could happen in any situation, unable to calculate all the details and factors that might send us careening in directions we never envisioned. 

With this in mind, when I looked  at this painting the first thing that jumped to mind was something quite the opposite.  

It is full of possibility and an idealized optimism.  There is no trace of darkness or hardship on the path in this landscape.  The horizon promises a bright future and seems close and reachable as the red tree urges you to come further along the path.  And even when the path might dip below the next small hiil and the horizon leaves your sight, it is still all light with clear skies above.  No need to fret.

It’s a Best Case Scenario. 

From the moment this painting, which is a 4″ wide by 14″ tall image on paper, began to take shape, it possessed this very positive feel.  Much of my work has an optimistic lean but it usually has a hint of darkness, a reminder of the malevolence that persists in our world.  Maybe this painting’s unfiltered positivism was created out of my own need for refuge and hope after being buffeted by recent news from around the world.   Perhaps its purpose was to remind me that there are best case scenarios out there to counter all the worst cases.  That there are positive goals to which we can aspire.  That there is light.

 If so, it does it job well for me.

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Archaeology: Legacy

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , on May 24, 2010| 2 Comments »

I am finished painting now and have started the process of finishing my work for the upcoming show, Facets, at the Principle Gallery in June.   As with every show, there is a final painting completed and for this show this is the last painting finished, a piece from the Archaeology series that is 18″ by 25″ on paper.  I call this painting  Archaeology: Legacy.

This is a piece that I started at the end of last year.  It was one of those times when I got to a certain point and liked what I had in front of me but had decisions to make witht he piece and didn’t feel ready to make them at the time.  So the piece would be set aside.  Occasionally, I would pull it out and add a bit to the underground artifacts but it just kind of simmered, growing slowly. 

As I neared my self-imposed deadline for this show, I began to hover back more and more to this piece.  I think part of it has to do with the feeling I’ve been experiencing in my mind at this point in the process.  Sometimes, as I near readiness for a show, there is a sense of great mental focus and clarity and other times, a feeling of chaos and disassociation.  There is no rhyme nor reason for this.  It just happens.  Maybe it has to do with my view of the outer world at the time  or how often I yell at the moon.

 I don’t know.

But as the prep for the show winds down this year, I find my concentration and attention dwindling.  Thoughts are short and fleeting.  Bursts of thought and image come and go in a flash.  It might be disturbing if I didn’t recognize this as being a sometime by-product of my process.  So, it seemed fitting that the last piece before me was an Archaeology piece where the details underground consist of a free flow of items and associations. 

As it neared completion, it seemed to calm me, as though a great piece of unfinished business that had been hanging like the sword of Damocles above was finally out of the way.  When the last iota of detritus had found it’s way to the surface, I breathed a sigh of relief.  A sigh of finality.

And maybe that’s what this painting is about.  The sigh of relief of a future world growing beyond the legacy passed on to them from a chaotic world.

Or not.

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Hierarchy

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , on May 20, 2010| 2 Comments »

Hierarchy ---GC Myers

The name I’ve chosen for my exhibition that opens June 11 at the Principle Gallery is Facets.  When looking at this year’s show, I realized that there was a very wide variety of my work in this group.  Not focusing on one specific aspect as in previous years.  There are  a few Red Roof paintings, a few fragmented sky paintings , a few with converging field rows, a few with Red Chairs and a couple of  my small, lone figures.  It’s overall a pretty interesting group that I think shows a fuller spectrum from the prism of my work.  Thus, the name, Facets.

There are also a handful of my Archaeology pieces in this show.  I only do a handful of these per year now.  The piece above, Hierarchy,  is derived from that series although it focuses more on the layers below the surface rather than artifacts, although there is one yellow shoe there.  This painting is a  30″ by 40″ canvas so it has some size which gives it some visual wallop. 

I’ve been working on this piece for about six months, doing a bit then setting  it aside.  I would keep glimpsing at it when I wasn’t working on it, trying to figure where I would go with it.  But I never wanted to rush it, never wanted to push it too hard.  Wanted it to grow naturally, organically.  It wasn’t until yesterday, when I dragged the last few strokes on the canvas, that I felt I finally saw where the painting had settled and it felt whole.

That’s always an interesting feeling, this sense of the work being suddenly complete.  Full.  Alive.  As though the last few embellishments stir something that make it more than mere paint smeared on canvas, make it an entity with a history and a future all its own.   It’s exhilarating  but sad at the same time, as though the life it’s taken on will soon be gone from my life.  I can’t fully explain it but that’s the feeling I felt yesterday with Hierarchy. 

So, I share my studio for the next few weeks with this breathing, living creature as it impatiently waits to shows its true self to the outside world…

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Carry The Weight

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged on May 11, 2010| 4 Comments »

Carry the Weight- GC Myers

I’m off this morning to speak with a group of college students at a local coffeehouse.  Every year,  a class in drawing or painting from our local community college meets at the end of the semester with professor Dave Higgins to discuss what their next step might be: what opportunities are there in the art field, how they should proceed, if they can make a living, etc.  The things that lay beyond the nuts and bolts instruction of the class.   Dave likes to have me come in to serve as an example of a local guy who was once much like them, attending the same school with the same concerns and self-doubts, but was now living as a professional artist.

Whenever I speak with students, I try to speak less about technical aspects of painting and more about building up the belief that they have a unique point of view.  They have to understand that there will always be someone more talented than themselves out there, someone with greater technical skills and more education.  This is unavoidable but they can’t let it deter them.  Because success in the field of art, and other fields as well, is not necessarily about who is the most talented or who has the most letters behind their name.  Success comes from making the most of your talents.
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I know that’s an old chestnut but it’s true nonetheless.  Art is about  gathering  and refining whatever talent you might have and using it to communicate your vision of the world to others.  It’s this belief, that your view of the world is as important and viable as any other,  that transcends other limitations.  Once they have this belief, the hard work and the sacrifices needed to succeed don’t seem so daunting. 
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So that’s what I try to accomplish with this talk.  Make them think about their view of the world. Let them know that their feelings and thoughts are no different nor less important than anyone else’s.   Their voice can be heard if they so wish.
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That’s a newer piece at the top of the page, a small painting on paper that I call Carry the Weight.  I thought it fit well with this post even though I’m not sure what is in the red bag.  I have painted this fellow a number of times and he remains a mystery to me.  Maybe that’s his purpose.
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Who knows?

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Light Work

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged on May 9, 2010| 1 Comment »

This is a piece that I finished in the last few days.  It’s a real throwback to my first forays into painting, done in a very watercolor way on untreated paper.  It’s 13″ by 23″ and is very transparent.  I’ve tried to maintain a certain complexity of color and strength of line yet the colors are lightly saturated, almost delicate.  I’m not sure how well this will translate on a computer screen. 

I’ve started doing a handful of paintings in this manner in order to focus on subtlety of the color and to allow the forms of the landscape and sky to carry the weight of meaning in the the piece.  It’s a tricky proposition to pull back from deep colors and texture yet still maintain strong edges.  I find that this type of painting works best with simplified forms that seemingly act as abstractions, giving the work an almost organic feel, if that’s the right word.  This feel plays well with the red tree which maintains its role as the focal point and inviting presence in the piece.

I like this work .  While it has a slightly different  appearance based on technique, it fits easily into my body of work.  There is an ethereal feel, something I strive for in much of my work,  that is enhanced by the transparency of the paint. 

Okay.  Back to the paints…

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Excitement and Evolution

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on May 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Blue Vigil- GC Myers

I’m about a month away from my annual show at the Principle Gallery and my studio is a mess.  There are paintings scattered about in varying degrees of completion.  Some are done and many need little touches here and there.  Some are still in early stages of development, still having many different potentials.  Some are still in my head, the result of ideas that blossom in this chaotic time of my year.

It’s hectic and I always seem to be behind my time schedule.  So much to do.  But it still remains one of my favorite times of my painting year if only for those new paintings in my head.  The intensity of the painting that comes with a looming deadline always seems to inspire new concepts and ambitions for my work which keeps me excited in the studio which makes my time spent alone there very easy to bear. 

This new excitement may come from working with a simple color or form or from a slight tweaking of  my technique.  It may come from revisiting concepts from the past that I haven’t used recently.  Or by a change in the materials I use.  A different canvas, paper or gesso often spurs me on.

This need to feel excitement in my own work is very important for me.  The main reason is simple.  If I cannot be stimulated by my own work, how can I expect others to be excited by it?  I’ve always believed that you can usually tell when a painter is inspired by their work.  There’s a confidence and surety in the rhythm of these pieces.  Perhaps this excitement is that which gives their work a signature “look”.

The other reason for this need to excite is that it fosters growth and change in the body of my work.  The changes may be small and imperceptible to many but they mark subtle expansion for me.  I see it when I scan back through the work over the last decade. Each year brings something new which changes the overall face on my body of work.  It may often seem much the same but it is actually an evolving continuum.  And I find excitement in this evolution…

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The Past Returns

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , on May 1, 2010| 4 Comments »

GC Myers - The Past Returns

 

It’s the first day of May and I’m entering the stretch run in my preparations for my upcoming June show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria.  The body of work is starting to take real shape and I’m getting a feel for how it will hang together during the show.  Themes emerge.

This year, I am devoting part of the show to work that is a return to my earlier work, painted in more transparent layers and more subdued tones of color. 

The piece shown here is indicative of this work.  I call this piece The Past Returns and it is 18″ by 18″ on treated cotton rag paper.  This piece to me is very much an homage to the first Red Tree paintings in color and form. 

This piece even has the visible spew line at the upper left corner where the liquid paint sometimes breaks free as I’m working it and rushes out of the picture plane.  I remember an older gentleman approaching me at an early show and pointing out this feature on my painting.  He told me how much he liked the spew lines, a term I had never heard.  He explained that he had worked in a foundry and that was their term for the excess metal that broke free of the mold.  I liked that and have called them spew lines since then.  I haven’t shown spew lines for some time, choosing to scrub and paint them out.  But seeing this one brought back the feeling of those earlier pieces and gave it an organic feel, exposing more of the process.  It had to stay.

Sometimes the past returns and it is a good thing…

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Redtree Redux

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged on April 19, 2010| 2 Comments »

I’ve started working on a series of paintings that are a return to my earlier work, back when the Redtree was first coming into view,  in the way they are painted.  Done on gessoed paper, I am using thinner, more transparent paints that allow the gesso base to show through, creating its own light and glow.

It’s a much different mindset than the one I’ve been employing in much of my recent work.  There is more restraint.  While it is still very much about color and texture, like the newer work, there is more delicacy and subtlety.  The colors are less saturated.  The transparency of the colors have a different effect even on a heavily textured base.  The linework is finer and the whole piece is really about how the blocks of color come together and interact. 

The feeling of the work, as a result, has a slightly more ethereal feel.  A lightness and coolness.  More atmospheric and less earthy than some of the newer work.  This being said, I don’t feel either style is superior to the other in that both reflect the same underlying emotions.  To me, they say the say the same things, only in different manners.   

This piece is a little over 5″ by 21″.  It’s still too new to have developed a title yet.  That will come soon enough…

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Light Imminent

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged on April 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is a painting titled Light Imminent that I’ve been working on for several months, on and off.  I used it some time back in a short film I put together in which I was working on this piece in an earlier stage of its development.

It’s a pretty big piece, 20″ by 60″ on canvas, so it sort of dominated the space where it sat incomplete for a long time, always in the edge of my vision.  It was, once again, a matter of letting a piece sit until it was ready to be completed, to have the last few pieces added which brings everything together.  The time it sat allowed me to really take in and weigh all the parts and make subtle decisions about the finishing touches.

For some pieces, this time spent resting is invaluable.  There is no rush to finish and options are given a chance to grow.  There are pieces that don’t require this period of mulling, that have an inevitability from the first few strokes that tell me where it wants to go.  There’s a sense of satisfaction in both types of painting.  Those that sit have the satisfaction of seeing the idea and feel of the piece take shape over time.  There’s a real sense of contemplation in this work.  Those that take shape quickly have the satisfaction of sudden birth, a burst of energy that takes form and becomes alive before your eyes.

I see the contemplative nature of the slower process in this painting.  It’s in little things that I probably am the only to notice.  A sharper edge here or there.  The modeling and strokework of the central tree.  A stroke or two added in the sky to bring the light to higher effect.  Little things.

Now I’m in the last few days of taking it in before it leaves to go out in the world.  Hopefully, it will find someone who sees some of what I see in it…

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