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Posts Tagged ‘California’

Streaming Peaceful

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on February 27, 2015| 4 Comments »

GC Myers Streaming Peaceful smHe who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with
the world.
    – Marcus Aurelius

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This is a new painting that is  titled Streaming Peaceful, a  24″ by 36″ canvas that is part of a group of paintings that should be arriving today at the Just Looking Gallery in San Luis Obispo on the Central Coast of California.  This very much a signature piece for my work in form and content, a deep landscape under a gradated sky with the Red Tree holding central  focus.

But for me the central aspect of this piece is the placid feel that emanates from it.  It has a rich and supple feel that I find brings immediate calm as soon as my eyes lock on to the image.  Even at this moment as I write, there is an instant sensation as though I am releasing a deep breath when I shift my gaze upward on the screen to this painting.

And that sense of being near some sort of core of peacefulness is what I am looking for in my work, at least in my own personal relationship to it.  I have maintained this quite a few times over the years here that my primary personal goal in painting is not in mere representation, not in pure design or technical prowess.  No, what I want, my ultimate goal,  is to simply move myself with the work to an inner point where I am finally calm and at peace with the world.  For me, feeling that calming envelope surround me is all I truly seek in my work.

Everything else is secondary.

And  this piece hits that mark– for me.  I can’t speak for others.   We all seek different things and have differing reactions to art.  What others see or feel in this is their experience alone and that is as it should be.

But, like it or not, I am at peace in it.

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California Dreaming

Posted in Influences, Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on January 26, 2014| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- California Dreaming 2014It’s another clear and cold winter day, about 4 degrees outside .  It’s visibly beautiful with the crisp and sparkling snow clinging to the pine boughs.   The contrast between what I see out the window of the studio and what I am seeing in my mind is often hugely different.  This new painting is such an example.

It’s a 36″ by 36″ canvas that I am calling California Dreaming.  It was not done with intention but as I was finishing it I couldn’t shake the feeling that this large piece reminded me of California, at least in some microcosmic way.  The mountains in the rear remind me of the Sierras rising from the Central Valley and even the two smaller hillocks in the foreground felt a small bit like the coastal hills.  When you added in the warmth of the colors, it just felt very California to me.

Having this on the easel then turning my head 90 ° to look out the window is quite the contrast.  Both make me happy but they are worlds apart.  At least, a continent and several temperate zones apart.

The title is, of course, a reference to the famous The Mamas & The Papas song, although my favorite version, out of  the many done of this song, is from Jose Feliciano.  Here’s a really nice instrumental version done by an exceptional guitarist, Michael Chapdelaine.  Enjoy and have a great day, whether you’re warm or just dreaming.

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Ansel Adams’ Yosemite

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Photography, tagged , , , , , on November 21, 2012| 6 Comments »

One of the things I am looking forward to next week when I head to California for the opening of my show at the Just Looking Gallery in San Luis Obispo is the couple of days beforehand that we will spend in Yosemite National Park.  I have never been there but know well the iconic images of its beauty from the photography of the great Ansel Adams.  While he is known for many photos of other locales, his images of the Yosemite Valley have come to be most closely associated with his name.

Adams (1902- 1984) first encountered Yosemite as a teen on a family excursion  on which he carried his first camera , a Kodak Brownie.  He was smittten by the spectacular landscape and the light as it filtered through the valley.  He would  return  over and over through the coming years, his prowess as a photographer growing.  He eventually married a local Yosemite girl, Virginia Best, whose father ran  Best’s Studio there.  She inherited the studio in 1935 and she and Adams ran it until 1971.  It is now called the Ansel Adams Gallery , where his work and the photos of  other great contemporary photographers are shown and sold.  The gallery  is still in the hands of the Adams family.

I’ve always loved his images of the grandeur of the Yosemite Valley and have formed my own idealized version of how the place might be in my mind through them.  I am hoping that reality lives up to expectations that have grown over many years.  I f any place can do this, I believe it might be Yosemite.

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California, Here I Come/ Just Looking Gallery

Posted in Neat Stuff, Painting, tagged , , , , , , on March 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

It is with great pleasure that I can announce that I am now being represented on the coast of  California  by the Just Looking Gallery in beautiful San Luis Obispo.  The gallery, with owner Ralph Gorton and Gallery Director Ken McGavin at the helm,  has been in operation for 28 years now and has long established itself as a premier gallery, offering strikingly individual work to its clientele.

When I was first contacted by them a few weeks ago, I was not looking for a new gallery.  But their enthusiasm for my work and the fact that they only carry a very small roster of hand-picked artists,  which offers closer attention in promoting the work , quickly won me over.  I have already placed a number of paintings in their very able hands and look forward to working closely with them in both the near and distant  future.

I was also excited by the prospect of finding such a gallery on the West Coast.  For many years I have had a number of people tell me that the style of my work would fit well in the central and northern coastal regions of California and the galleries representing my work in the east have sold a fair number of paintings to collectors on the West Coast.  So, hopefully their optimism will hold true.

In case you weren’t aware, San Luis Obispo, besides being one of the oldest cities in California, is known as of late as being one of the happiest cities on the planet, the only American city on a list compiled by Dan Buettner for his National Geographic book Thrive, based on a five year  global study on the keys to personal happiness.  Buettner applied the same techniques in studying happiness that  he used in his famed study on the global blue zones, areas where longevity is much longer for the average human. 

 I always hope that my work finds a happy, appreciative  home and, if this is any indicator, San Luis Obispo and the Just Looking Gallery sound like the place where it should be.

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