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Posts Tagged ‘Dark Work’

Soft Dream of Night

Posted in Favorite Things, Painting, Quote, tagged , , , on September 25, 2013| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Soft Dream of Night smIf one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

–Henry David Thoreau

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This has long been one of my favorite pieces in the studio, a  14″ by 24″ painting on paper from 2002 called Soft Dream of Night.  It was part of the work that I completed in early 2002 in the aftermath of  9/11 .  It is considered part of what has been  referred to as my Dark Work.  It was work that I feel was very reflective of the feeling of that time and, as a result, was not as deeply embraced as my  typical work that has a more optimistic and forward-looking tone.  As a result, I was able to hold on to several pieces from that group which pleased me because they just felt so emotionally wrought to me that I liked the idea that they stayed in place.

This piece has evolved in feeling over the years for me, from a feeling of regretful, mournful retrospection to one that offers  the promise of a road forward, one that climbs through rich fields with the brightness  of  the moon to light the way.  Though it has a darkness beneath its surface, it no longer feels dark in tone.  It has a confidence and positive feel that would not have come to mind eleven years ago.

Time often changes our perceptions on many things.  I like that this piece has evolved for me and was not forever mired in the memory and tragedy of that time.  Perhaps the darkness underneath this painting is that memory, always present.  But above, life moves forward and dreams are still lived out.

As it should be…

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Presentation

Posted in Early Paintings, Painting, Technique/History, tagged , , on July 7, 2013| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- With All Possibility smThis is a painting of mine from a number of  years back, a 16″ by 20″ canvas titled With All Possibility.  For the past several years it has hung in a back room of my studio but has remained a favorite of mine.  It’s part of a group of paintings of mine that is often referred to as the Dark Work which refers to the dark ground on which they’re painted and deep and dark  primary colors of the surface.  This work started in the months after 9/11 as we struggled as a nation to find footing.  This work was my emotional response at the time.  The work never gained the favor of my more typical work but I have always believed that it has something real in it, something that expresses a base emotion with genuine truth.

That’s why I probably give this work a go in the studio  every so often, painting new pieces to see if I still see something in this style.  This particular painting was part of  such a revisit back in 2007.  I thought at the time that this was a strong piece of work and, having had it around for a few years now, still believe so.  But it never raised any interest in its limited visits to a couple of galleries so I tried to figure out if  there was  fault in it.

Sometimes this is the case in some paintings, where I will have strong feelings over a piece that just doesn’t click with anyone.  I may be seeing something that is not visible in the surface of the work– an inspiration or even my own memory of the painting  process– which affects my judgement of the piece.  After some time, I will begin to see this and begin to see that my judgement of it was tainted, that I was not seeing the painting as it really was and, as a result, was missing real flaws in it.  Flaws that deprived it of the life that I thought I was seeing  when in fact I was only sensing my memory of the creation of it.  A big difference.

But looking at this piece, I still felt there was something real, something strong.  The forms, the colors, the textures– it all seemed to work in a rhythm of simple harmony with focus and depth.  Everything I look for in my work.  What was wrong?

It didn’t take long to figure it out.  It was my presentation of the work.  The frame.  At the time of this piece, I tried a very short-lived experiment with some gold-leafed frames, wide flat mouldings with a more classic  style.  I was trying to have the frame add weight to my work and it was a huge mistake.  It was not in any kind of sync with my work and it even went against my own personal rule which always has the edges of my work, on paper or on canvas, exposed.  I have only had a few pieces over the many years where the edges are covered and even those few still nag at me.

But here was this piece in this frame that would be more suitable for a more traditional pastoral scene in oil, its edges trapped under the gold-leafed rim.  It was all wrong.  How could I have not seen this long ago?

I unframed it and I immediately felt so much better, like a weight was lifted off my chest.  Liberated from the golden bindings of that frame, the painting seemed as strong and as vibrant as I had  thought .  I had been trying to present it as something that it was not and in the process had shaded its reality from the viewer.  It now sits without a frame and, if it ever leaves the studio, will have a proper presentation– edges exposed and ready to fly free.

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The Dark Rise

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on March 8, 2011| 6 Comments »

This was a case of a painting dictating what is was to be, against my efforts to make it otherwise. 

 This new 24″ by 24″ canvas grew slowly and once I was painting  in the sky I kept telling myself that it had to be lighter and lighter.  Since  2002 when I was featuring paintings that featured darker tones (referred to as my “dark work“), I have resisted working in this series.  That work was not as well received as most of my work  and I was responding to the market.  Personally, I felt that this was very strong work, work that excited my sensibilities.  But if they had no place in the galleries, I was hesitant to spend my time on the work.

So when I was in the midst of this piece I began to naturally steer away from the darkness that marked these earlier works.  I saw the sky as being brighter and having high contrast but with each stroke there was a nagging feeling that that was not what was meant for this piece.  I went so far as to load my palette with lighter colors and stand, brush in hand, before the canvas, ready to change this painting in a way that would alter everything about it.

But there was something that told me to stop, that this was where the sky stopped, that this was the destination.  This was what this piece was meant to be.  I stepped back and put down the palette.  It would stay dark.

Now, maybe this will not fit into the marketplace for my work but that doesn’t matter.  When I look at this piece, that is the last thing in my mind.  I am immediately pulled into the picture plane and upward, over the knolls, toward the top of the rise where the sun/moon hovers, urging me to continue climbing.  It is complete and has its own life, its own momentum.  It is what it is and that is beyond me now.

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Continuing Upward

Posted in Early Paintings, tagged on December 16, 2010| 2 Comments »

This is a piece from 2002 called Continuing Upward.  It’s a 10″ by 16″ image on paper and is from has been called my dark work, which was painted over a dark base.  Despite the name given to this work, I’ve never felt that were dark undertones in the feelings that these pieces brought up in myself.  I think that this piece, for instance, feels light yet  rich and uplifting. 

  I’ve always liked this painting a lot and particularly like the way the piece is divided by the bluish tone which continues upward from the road through the tree.  There’s a real coolness in this bisecting path of color that plays well off the golden, warm tones of the land and the sky, a coolness that I associate with a movement of air like a cool refreshing breeze.  It was the upward rise of this path of blue that gave me the title and gives me a sense of spiritual uplifting, an ascension from the dark base of the landscape to light.  This defines this painting.

I haven’t seen this piece in many years and wonder how it stands up in person now.  Over the years my surfaces have changed and it’s always interesting to see how a piece painted even only eight years looks to my current eye.  Would I change anything now?  Would I make different choices in the way I applied the paint or in the colors used?  It’s purely an academic exercise because the piece stands as it is and always will be just that.  These questions allow me to take certain things from this piece for possible use in the future.  Maybe the bisecting blue swath.  Maybe the golden undertones in the color.  Many things.

Or I could just stop thinking for a moment and let the piece be just what it is– one allows me to enter it easily and raises my spirit immediately.

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Stranger In a Strange Land

Posted in Early Paintings, tagged , , on December 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Well, it’s the day after Christmas and today I’m starting a five day stint, filling in for owner Linda Gardner at the West End Gallery.  It’s something I haven’t done for well over a decade and as the day has approached I’ve become more and more nervous at the prospect.  I’m afraid my people skills will have deteriorated a bit during those years spent in the studio when the only contact with people in a gallery was confined to an hour or two a few times a year at my openings.

I’m hoping they return.  Quickly.

Over this time at the gallery, I will be bringing out a few pieces from the studio that haven’t been shown in a number of years.  One such painting is the one shown above, Stranger (In a Strange Land), which has been a favorite of mine for a long time.  This 12″ by 36″ piece is considered one of my “dark” pieces, very densely colored over a black ground.  I never saw many of the pieces that are considered “dark” as being truly dark but this particular painting fits the billing.  It has a deep, dark background and there is a palpable sense of being adrift in an alien landscape throughout the scene.   Everything looks somewhat familiar but there’s a dimension beyond the norm, one that lifts the veil and reveals something unrecognizable, something that can’t be deciphered.  Like hearing the clicking language of African tribes for the first time.

I suppose this sense of alienation is what brought me to the title.  Whether you know the phrase from the popular sci-fi novel of the same name from Robert Heinlein or from the biblical quote of Moses, it is a most evocative group of words.

Anyway, this piece and more will be at the West End Gallery in Corning today and for the next five.  Stop in and take a look.

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The Dark Work

Posted in Early Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on December 11, 2008| 1 Comment »

A Journey BeginsMy work had a dramatic change for a while in the months after 9/11.  Like everyone, my worldview shifted that day and this was reflected in my work.   It became darker in appearance and tone,  a bit more ominous in feel.   A lot of this had to do, technically, with the way the pieces were painted.  I was using a dark base and adding color in layers on top of this base, slowly building up my surface.  Much like painting on black velvet.  Normally I start with a white base and add layers of colors, taking away color as needed to achieve a desire effect.  As I pulled paint off the surface, the light base would come through and give the picture plane a glowing presence.  My normal technique is basically a “reductive” style whereas this new work in 2002 was “additive”.  

Being untrained, these are terms I’ve adopted to sort of describe what I see as my technique.  They work for me.

Night TranceThis new work was not nearly so optimistic in feeling as my previous work.  People were a bit slower to embrace it and I wasn’t surprised at a time when our nation was still reeling.  But it was a true expression of how I felt at that time and I remember my time at the easel with these pieces as being very trance-like.  I would start a piece and have a hard time stopping.  A virtual intoxication of color.  Or maybe more of a refuge in the scenes.  I don’t know.

Since the public was a bit more lukewarm to this group , which the galleries call “the dark work”, I have several of these pieces still and I am still excited when I look at them.  They are rich and bold and very still in nature.  They may be dark but I still think there is hope in these paintings but it’s a wary type of hope.  

And in the end, hope is hope…

In the Flow

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