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Posts Tagged ‘Alexandria VA’

Call to Waking

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on May 16, 2011| 7 Comments »

I’m in the final days of painting for my upcoming show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria.  I’ve titled this show Now and Then and it opens June 10th.  This past weekend really was extremely productive in the studio, with several pieces finally finished and the overall feel of the show taking  shape.  I had struggled for some time to find real definition for this show, that key factor that hopefully makes  each show distinct.  The past few days has me thinking that this show has found its distinction.

I think that it is defined by a fairly large group of works on paper such as the one shown above,Call to Waking.  This is an 11″ by 11″ image that is a mix of black inks and a sort of sepiatone that is actually a mix of many colors.  As I have described before, my process involves putting a lot of paint on the surface then pulling much of it off, soaking it up with brushes then squeezing them out.  In my old studio, I often found myself squeezing this paint on to the floor which left a huge blackish stain on the flooring there.  I try to be a bit more careful in my newer studio and have made a habit of collecting this paint, which often results in the creation of a color like the sepia of this piece. 

 There are a number of pieces in this show that have either this sepia or black/gray as the base color.  I have shown a few at a time in the past but this will be a substantial group and will provide an interesting juxtaposition between this work and my prototypical work. filled as it is with strong colors.  Seeing the two differing styles side by side in the studio has really shown this contrast.

Many of these pieces have bits of color in them, a faintly red tree or an orangish sun/moon  that pops from the gray/sepia background, but this piece is devoid of color.  I felt that the sepiatone had a warmth in itself and the contrast of the light breaking through the sky provided its own pop.  I felt that  any more color, say with  red roofs, would actually be a distraction here, altering the ample mood that has been created.  I think it works well as it is.

Well, although I could say more, I have work to get to.

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Don’t Forget Me

Posted in Favorite Things, Video, tagged , , , on December 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’m on the road today, taking a group of work to the Principle Gallery in Alexandria.  So, I thought I’d play a song that ties together several different elements.  It’s a song that I referenced in yesterday’s post on Harry Nilsson, Don’t Forget Me.  It’s performed by one of my favorites, Neko Case, who has been featured here a number of times.  She covers this song on her most recent album but this is from Elvis Costello’s Spectacle television series.  She also hails from Alexandria.

So, give a listen and, like the songs says in such a wistful way, come on, get happy…

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days pass in gray

Posted in Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on June 22, 2010| 2 Comments »

I’ve been working on a series of pieces that are monochromatic but for small bursts of color.  It started as an exercise, just something to reboot my brain after finishing the show that’s currently hanging at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria.  I wanted to think less about color and more about form, letting color emerge as the exercise went on.  I wasn’t sure what would show up but as these gray paintings took shape I was pleased by the overall feel.

They felt stripped down, detail peeled away leaving only the essence.  Haiku-like.  But still saying essentially what I wanted from them.

So after the show, which had a great response for this work, I decided to explore a bit more with this series.  It’s been interesting to revisit familiar compositions with this spartan palette, finding new definition in in the already known.  There is a different sort of challenge in trying to coax emotion from the limits of grays and blacks, keeping myself from going to my  strength, color.  For me, maybe that’s the appeal of these pieces- that tension of restraint.

This painting is Days Pass In Gray and is definitely familiar in form.  With full color, this piece is an iconic image of strength and perseverance-  a celebration of triumph almost.  But stripped of color except for a touch of red in the tree’s canopy it becomes a different view of perseverance.  There is a victory of sorts but it seems more hard-fought and the price paid is worn for all to see.  The red in the tree is a garland of victory but the tree realizes that the days don’t stop to celebrate any triumph but continue their steadfast march ahead. 

Time has the pitiless stare of the sphinx.

Maybe that’s too grim an assessment because I do see a joy in this painting as well, in the distant light on the far mountains.  It gives a certain hope to this piece that lifts it above the darkness that I wrote of above.  Perhaps that is what I enjoy about this work, the polarity of the emotions it pulls all at once from me. 

Maybe.  I don’t know.  I guess I’ll have to look a little more…

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Alive in the Gray Area

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , on June 11, 2010| 3 Comments »

Alive in the Gray Area- GC Myers

My show opens tonight at the Principle Gallery.  I head down the highway early in the day and settle into my hotel and relax for a short time before the opening.  Have a bite to eat and try to take my mind off the show.  I still have anxiety over the whole thing, as I talked about in yesterday’s post.  But it’s not so much of a panic after 25 or so solo shows. 

Just try to keep the flop sweat down and be grateful for those who show up.

Dancing in the Gray Light

This year, I’m bringing a couple of pieces with me on the day of the show.  They are two smaller paintings done in shades of gray and black with touches of color.  I started these this week as an exercise, sort of to clear my palette.  Go back beyond color then come forward again.  These were primarily done as such and were not meant to be shown but I found that they really appealed to me and gave a different flavor to my normal compositions.  Taking the focus off the color made my eye instead fall to subtlety of line and tonal differences in the grays.

It was still my work but I was seeing it  in a different way.  Like hearing a song you know very well played in a much different manner.  You recognize all the things about it that you liked in it normally but notice things that evaded you before.

That’s kind of how I feel about these pieces. 

So I decided to show them tonight if only to get a bit of feedback.

So if you’re in Alexandria tonight, stop in at the Principle Gallery and say hello. Maybe take a look around.  There’s plenty of color to go along with the grays…

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Connected

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , on June 10, 2010| 2 Comments »

 

Well, I’m basically set to head to Alexandria for tomorrow night’s opening of my show, Facets, at the Principle Gallery.  This is the eleventh year that I’ve done this show so I have an idea of how things usually go.  Not a lot of surprises.  Like they say, this ain’t my first rodeo.

But, despite this little burst of bravado, there is always a level of anxiety that accompanies these shows.  I’ve talked about it before in this blog.  The thought that I’ve misread my work and it doesn’t resonate with a larger audience always lingers in the days before a show.  That’s my biggest fear.  That and the fear that nobody shows up and I’m left standing with the folks from the gallery, me apologizing to them and them to me, all of us making rationalizations on what might have happened. 

Been there, done that.

This second scenario sounds worse, I know.  The awful awkwardness of it.  But the fear of midreading my own work and how it comes across to others looms far larger for me.  People not showing up, sales being up or down– things like that are usually the result of factors you can’t predict or control.  Weather.  Scheduling conflicts.  The economy.

But not seeing your own work as others might see it is a bigger problem, at least in my eyes.  I see my work as being successful when it’s communicating across a wide spectrum of people.  To me, art is all about communicating and connecting on an emotional level, getting across some feeling that I can’t capture in any other way but my imagery and having someone see and react to it in much the same way as I.  And when that doesn’t happen, I’ve misread my work in some way.  And when that happens, it’s like a sailor being adrift without a rudder or the stars to guide them.  Truly alone.

And that is a time of fear.

But those moments are rare, fortunately.  And I feel this show communicates well, reaches out in a broad way.

Connected, like the painting above of the same name, which is part of this show.  It’s a painting on paper that measures 18″ by 26″ and one that I think very much bridges the gap between the past and the present of my work.  I think that word, connected, says everything I want to say about this show.

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Advocate

Posted in Opinion, Recent Paintings, tagged , , on June 7, 2010| 4 Comments »

  Concerning this blog, a gallery owner once said to me, “You sure have a lot of opinions.”  I think they were concerned with the possibility of me  alienating one or more of their clients with my personal opinions.

“Everyone has opinions,” I replied. “They just don’t always express them.”

That short exchange may well be the basis for this painting, Advocate.  A 24″ by 36″ work on canvas, this is a new piece showing at the Facets show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA, which opens Friday, June 11th. 

 When I look at this piece I see the red tree as the advocate, standing up for an opinion that may represent that of the red roofed houses.  It’s as though there is an interchange happening between the tree and the light breaking through the fingers of the sky, the tree arguing for the light to shed aside the darkness and shine on the scattering of homes below.

Actually, while I do have as many opinions as anyone and  sometimes have an inability to keep them to myself when asked, I try to steer away from treading too much in this blog  on subjects that do not pertain to my work in some way.  Unfortunately, my work is a product of my emotions and my emotions are often stirred by things going on in this world.  So occasionally opinion on things that may not seem to have anything directly to do with the making of art creeps in. 

 This always leaves me a little uneasy.  Like the title of my show, I am a prism comprised, as we all are, of many and varied facets.  I show many of these aspects in my work and in this blog and I sometimes fear I am showing too much,  that once the viewer has gained enough familiarity with the work and me,  the mystery of the work will be gone.  So, I try to keep some of these facets out of the light of my visible prism.  Actually, I almost started listing these here as examples, which would kind of defeat the whole purpose of not showing them in the first place.

But the red tree of this painting is not afraid to show themself fully as it is, visible from every aspect.  It is vulnerably in the open yet it appears strong and definite in conviction, willing to face down anything that crosses its path.  It is a fully lit prism.

Maybe this is a case where a painting represents aspiration rather than reality…

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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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Reflections

Posted in Recent Paintings, Technique/History, Video, tagged , , on May 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’ve been showing a lot of new work lately that I will be showing at my upcoming show in june at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.  This is a 24″‘ by 30″ painting that I finished back in February which has been above my studio’s fireplace for most of that time. I look at it several times a day and have yet to want to alter it in any way.  I find the sparseness of detail adds to the coolness and focus that I think make this piece work.

I didn’t have a title for this piece, even after months of looking at it.   I sometimes struggle with titling certain pieces that I’ve lived with for a while and seem to strike an inner chord with me.  This was one such painting.  But the time has come to start putting names to paintings.  I have a certain way of doing that that I’ve outlined before where I will set up a piece, pretending that I have never seen it before. I will turn away from it then turn back quickly, taking it in and grasping whatever first strikes me about the piece.  Color, shape, mood—–whatever jumps at me.  Then, taking that first impression, it becomes easier to find the right name.

But sometimes it doesn’t work and there are pieces that don’t adhere to this method.  Like this piece.  So I wait and hope something jumps out at some point or that I stumble across the right words for it.  I was looking for something else earlier and came across an old song from the late 60’s from a group, Marmalade, a Scottish band that had long since left my memory.  While their band’s name was forgettable, their best known hit, Relections On My Life,  was not.  Great song that rekindled old memory and I immediately knew I had a title for this painting: Reflections on a Life.

Sometimes you find things in unlikely places.  For those of you who don’t remember Marmalade, here they are:

+

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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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