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Posts Tagged ‘New Painting’

Odyssey

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on May 20, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Odysssey smI am in the last stages of preparation for my solo show at the Principle Gallery that I will be delivering at the end of next week.  As I’ve documented here many times in the past, it’s a very hectic time as I put the finishing touches on the last few paintings as I simultaneously begin the process of making the work show-ready.  That entails photographing and varnishing paintings, staining frames, cutting mats and glass then putting it all together so that each piece shows itself at its best.

It is a sometimes daunting task, one that has a much different tempo and thought process than the actual act of painting.  With painting there is an almost meandering journey taking place as the mind drifts during the act, sometimes sharply focusing and sometimes going blank as intuition takes over.  There are pauses and rests along the way as the painting takes shape.

But preparing the work to leave the studio is straightforward and far less cerebral.  Just put your head down and power through the task in front of you then on to the next and the next.  Drone work.

But one of the gifts in doing this is being able to handle and spend time with each painting once more, to stop for a few moments and really look deeply at each for what might be a last time.  There’s something very fulfilling in this part of process as each piece takes on a sense of completeness and acquires its own voice, becomes an entity beyond me.

That’s definitely the sense I got when I was photographing the painting above yesterday.  It’s a 16″ by 40″ canvas that didn’t have a name but looking at it closely yesterday it reminded me of a long and arduous journey, one that winds through mountains and across seas in search of home.  And there on a prominent peak was the Red Tree, looking patiently out to sea like Penelope scanning the horizon for the return of Odysseus. In an instant that was the voice of that painting for me.

I call this piece Odyssey.

And now, like Homer’s travelers, I must return to my own odyssey.  There is must to do before I rest…

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Solitude and Reverence

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on May 15, 2015| 4 Comments »

Myers- Solitude and ReverenceSilence and solitude seem to be the theme this week on the blog.  Well, most weeks, I guess. Today, I am featuring a new painting that will be part of my Native Voice exhibit opening three weeks from today on June 5  at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria.  It is a 24″ by 36″ canvas and is titled Solitude and Reverence.

It’s a painting that has really hung with me here in the studio, my gaze often going to it through the day as I work on other things.  There’s a sense of fullness and completeness, a quality I can’t fully describe here,  in it that pleases me, that makes me want to study it and absorb it a bit longer.

Perhaps it is because I feel that this painting is even more personal and self-referential, seeing myself as the Red Tree, isolated in the solitude of my work which is symbolized by the field rows between me and the  houses and road in the foreground.  It is a pleasant isolation, a voluntary withdrawal from the rest of the world.

I suppose I should say the world of man because there is no withdrawal from the world.  In fact, there is a more intimate relationship with the natural world which brings about the reverence referred to in the title.  I see it in this painting in the landscape spreading out in the distance and the radiating light and color of the sky which seems symbolic of the greater power and mystery of the natural world.

I sit here now and there is so much more I could write about this piece but it all seems so futile when I can just look at it, knowing everything in a glance that I could struggle for hours to say so poorly with words.

And maybe that is the message here– that we should simply shut up and take in the world in a reverent quietude.

I will do that now…

 

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Epiphany

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on May 11, 2015| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Epiphany smI call this new painting, an 18″ by 18″ canvas,  Epiphany.  There’s just something in the way the Red Tree stands against the burst of light in the sky behind it that reminds me  of those rare moments of  revealed insight, when you realize something that forever changes your perception of the world and perhaps sends you down an unexpected new path.

This was an interesting piece to paint, one that evolved in a different way than most of my work.  As it built from the bottom, the sky was painted in a transparent deep yellow wash.  IT was okay but it just didn’t have that sense of rightness, didn’t fill the emotional void that was present.  So I blacked out the sky and went to my other process of building up the paint which is unusual for me as I seldom mix the two processes except in detail work.

The sky took on a greater role with this incarnation, becoming the engine that moved the piece forward.  As I finished the work on the Red Tree, the corona of light around its crown took on an almost religious aspect and the whole thing began to look like a stylized portrait of a saint with a halo and red cloak.  And that made the title seem even a bit more appropriate, using a different definition of the word where epiphany is used to describe a manifestation of the divine– a supernatural being.

And maybe that is what all epiphanies are– manifestations of the divine.  I have had a  moment or two in my life that I view as epiphanies. Whether they truly were is subject to debate– they certainly were personal breakthroughs in perception– but in those moments I certainly felt closer to some sort of  divinity than I ever had before.  And that’s what I am reminded of in this piece — the blood red of the physical earth and tree becoming one with the ethereal in the light of the sky.

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Envoy

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on May 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers Envoy small 72Many people have asked me over the years to explain the Red Tree that so often appears in my work, to describe its meaning and purpose.  It’s not always an easy question to answer because the Red Tree has served many purposes for me.

On the most basic level, it has served as a focal point in my paintings, drawing the eye to an area around which everything in the scene revolves.  The flaming red crown of the tree is almost like a small sun with the other elements in the painting swirling in their own revolutions around it.

Or I sometimes describe it as a symbol for the individual being, one with which the viewer, myself included, can hopefully find  common ground so that they can see themselves in the circumstances of the scene.  It is an actor in this definition, performing a part for an audience.

Or it is a world symbol.  The Family Tree.  The Tree of Life.

And sometimes it is just a tree, a simple element in nature that we all see every day but perhaps don’t really notice the significance of the part they play in this world.

But in my mind the most important part that the Red Tree plays for me is as an intermediary between my inner world and the outer world.  It is my ambassador, my envoy, who acts as a welcoming figure inviting the viewer into the world portrayed on and beneath the surface.   It acts as greeter and a guide, an often warm presence that reassures the viewer that it is safe to enter.  I think the new painting at the top is a perfect example of this definition with its welcoming stance, almost like it is opening  a door for one to proceed into the rich golden fields beyond.

Fittingly, I call this new 30″ by 40″ painting Envoy. It will be part of my June show, Native Voice, at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.

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Rooted

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on May 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- RootedIn this new painting, a 10″ by 30″ canvas that I am calling Rooted, the Red Tree steps aside and allows the Red Chair to take centerstage.

The title is an obvious reference to the Red Chair’s most frequent interpretation as a symbol of family and ancestry, with the dark tree that holding them looking in a way like a pedigree chart with branches coming off the main root and branching out.  The path that disappears in the distance could be  referring to the journey that the family tree took at an earlier time, perhaps emigrating from a distant land.

But for all its symbolism, I feel the strength of this piece is more from a visual fulfillment in the way the tree’s trunk and branches break up the picture plane into little islands of light, as though I am looking down on it from above and the tree transforms into a river with the branches becoming smaller streams feeding into it.  Thus, the Red Chairs are not growing away from the earth but are flowing back toward it.

There are a lot of things happening in this modest piece. Even now, looking up at it as it rests on the fireplace here in the studio, I find myself taking in different aspects of it that send my mind in new directions. And I like the fact that it can be simply what it is or can move me into a completely different realm of thought.

Rooted will be part of my show, Native Voice, opening June 5 at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.

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Conquest

Posted in Motivation, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on April 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers Conquest smConquest is one of those words that have grand connotations, often thought of it in terms of strength and domination, of empires and battles between nations and ideologies.But it can have a much smaller, more personal meaning as well, one where it is all about overcoming those things that keep us from becoming the person we ourselves as being.

Fear, for instance.

And that’s the meaning I see for myself in this new 24″ by 30″ painting, Conquest, part of my June show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria.

It feels as though the Red Tree is in a moment of personal conquest, perhaps even epiphany.  It has overcome the struggles of the journey, symbolized by the path and fallen tree as well as the worked rows of the field, to reach a point where it can reflect back on it all, seeing in the clear bright light the realization of earlier, distant hopes.

These moments of conquest may not appear as epic moments for all to see. Personally, the times when I have most felt this feeling have not been grand moments of statement at all. There are few of those moments in most lives. Rather, they are often small and personal- a quiet and sudden recognition that I am at some point that seemed out of reach earlier in the journey.

In that moment, there is instant reflection on what led to this point.  The earlier fears that seemed like shackles now appear as harmless boogeymen, mere figments of imagination hidden in the dark.  But in the bright light the darkness recedes, revealing new horizons to move toward.

One person’s triumph over their fears is perhaps as large a conquest as that of any empire.

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Deliberations

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on April 17, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- DeliberationsThis is a new 12″ by 24″ painting on canvas that, for the moment, I am calling Deliberations.  I finished it yesterday and have been looking at it ever since, trying to decipher what it is that I am seeing in it, why it is pulling me in,  Something very cryptic in it– perhaps it’s the birds or the Red Chair or the stubbed off tree limbs– that fills me with questions.

What is this place?  What do those birds have to do with the Red Chair?  Is the sun rising or falling past the horizon and is that snow on the ground?  Why is the Red Chair in the circle of earth?

Quite honestly, I don’t know.

Starting with the given title, Deliberations, I begin to see this as a place of  judgement, either some sort of self-judgement or a spiritual reckoning.  As  though it is a place where when one has passed on, they go to review their life to determine what they done with the time given to them here on Earth. The life in question is the Red Chair, the red representing the physical embodiment.  The birds might be witnesses or judges or both.  The light over the horizon might be the next step forward– heaven, if that is what your belief system tells you it is called– and the trees act as a barrier between this place and that next step.

Kind of reminiscent, in a more symbolic and  folky way, of the Albert Brooks/Meryl Streep movie, Defending Your Life, where the dead find themselves at a Disney-like resort where, over several days they attend hearings where they review and defend the life they have lived to to determine whether they have learned its lessons in order to move on to a more ethereal plane.  If not, they return to try again.

But maybe this is just a red chair in the woods and those are simply some birds who frequent those woods.

Who knows?  It’s all in the eye of the beholder.  As for myself, I will deliberate on it a little longer…

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From Out of the Blue

Posted in Influences, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , on April 15, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers From Out of the Blue smIn yesterday’s blogpost, I talked a bit about the influence that stained glass had on my work.  Deep color, the luminosity  and lines defining the forms within are all attributes that have found their way into my work.  It was never a conscious decision, one where I said to myself that I was going to try to emulate the look and effect of stained glass.  It was just one of those things that I took in and integrated into my personal aesthetic. Just something I liked to look at.  And that somehow synthesized into the work.

In fact, I wasn’t even aware of the similarity until a few years into my career when several people pointed it out to me, asking if stained glass was a big influence.  I think I always answered yes to the question.  I mean, I liked it a lot so it had to have been an influence on some basic level.

Looking around the studio at the group of new work that is growing for my upcoming June show, Native Voice,  at the Principle Gallery, there are a number of paintings that you can easily see the influence of stained glass.  The piece shown above, From Out of the Blue, really has that feel for me, with the geometry of its puzzle-like pieces in the foreground and the brightness of its sky.  I see that sky in glass as hundreds of small, sharp shards of varying sizes and colors, all radiating outward.

But maybe it being a painting and not stained glass is the attraction for me.  Each medium has its limitations and being able to borrow attributes from one medium and integrate them into the vocabulary and process of another is exciting in itself.  It is painting’s spontaneity that draws me to it, where instinctual moves can be made within moments that change the whole piece.  I don’t know that I could get that with glass and could easily see a piece like From Out of the Blue becoming a contrivance in stained glass.  Too thought out.  Too worked over.  Too clean.

Definitely not from out of the blue— which is how I like it.

 

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Tides of Change

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on April 8, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Tides of Change smIf there is no struggle, there is no progress.

—Frederick Douglass

 Narrative of His Life, 1845

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We humans are an imaginative lot.  When the first light breezes of any sort of change comes rustling through our leaves, our imaginations go into high gear, filling our minds with images of worst possible scenarios.  So we brace ourselves and struggle against the wind as it becomes stronger and stronger.  Some of us topple over and some lose all our leaves as the wind’s intensity continues to grow.

But some of us set aside our fears and adjust to the wind.  We give a bit and relax,  finding a comfortable position to endure the wind and trusting  that our roots will hold us fast.

We adjust and find that we stand as easily in the new day as we did in the days before.

Change is an inevitable force of nature. It is our adjustments to these tides of change that determine whether we fall or stand, fail or prosper.

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That’s just one reading for the new painting at the top  which is titled, of course, Tides of Change.  This 12″ by 36″ canvas will be at the Kada Gallery in Erie for the Gallery Talk there that takes place at 1 PM  this Saturday, April 11.  The talk and the drawing  to win one of my paintings is open to all. So if you have a different take on this painting and want to share it, come down to the Kada Gallery on Saturday and we’ll talk.

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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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