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Posts Tagged ‘New Painting’

Moment Sublime

Posted in Biographical, Opinion, Painting, tagged , , , , , on July 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers 2013- Moment Sublime smI delivered my work yesterday to the West End Gallery for this year’s solo exhibit, Islander.  The show, which hangs in the Corning gallery from July 26th until August 30, is something like my 37th or 38th solo show at different galleries around the country so there are common experiences with each that you begin to notice.  One is definitely the sense of relief that comes with delivering the show.

The work is done, everything framed and photographed, and in the gallery.  Seemingly , my job is done.  That’s not exactly true as there is always an aspect of the job that lingers after the work leaves the studio such as writing this and doing other promotional things that are required in order to spread the word about my work.  But for the most part, my work is done and I can step back to take a deep breath.

I generally notice a sense of exhaustion that sets in immediately after delivery, as though the tension of meeting a deadline has been a distraction from the tiredness that has been creeping in.  It’s a good exhaustion though, one that comes with knowing that I am totally satisfied with the work that I have done and have put in it as much as I could.

It’s a feeling much like the one I see in the painting featured above, Moment Sublime, a 9″ by 14″ painting on paper that is part of the show.  I suppose that is why I chose it for today’s post.  There is that same real sense of satisfaction in this image, a peaceful feeling of being only in the moment.  For me, after delivering the show, this means having no regrets about the work I have done and not concerning myself in that moment about the future results of the show or what comes next.

The task is done.  I am very happy with what I have done, feeling that it truthfully represents who I am at this moment.  All that I could ask.  In that instant, I am that Red Tree and the moment is indeed sublime…

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The Bridge

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on May 24, 2013| 5 Comments »

GC Myers- The Bridge

This is another new painting that is headed to the Principle Gallery  for my new exhibition, Observers, which opens there June 7, two weeks from today.  This piece , which I call  The Bridge, is 8″ by 18″ on paper.  The small bridge between the two masses is a variation on the island theme  that has figured prominently in my work recently.

There are probably multiple interpretations for this image.  With a single I look   I can read it in several different ways but the one that sticks with me is seeing the bridge as that connection between the two poles of our individual selves, that link that both connects and differentiates our opposing forces. The  masculine and feminine.  Our good and not so good impulses.  Maybe  even life and death.

In this way it reminds me a bit of the corpus callosum in our brains, the bridge of neural fibers that connects the two hemispheres and transmits information between them.  It allows the two sides to function as a single, efficient unit- – well, somewhat efficient on good days– and in some cases when there is a problem on either side where function is impaired allows that function to migrate to the other side .

As my not-so-efficient brain struggles to write this ( and believe me, it is a struggle) I am bombarded by other ways of seeing this piece.  I really like that it has a multitude of ways of being seen.  I am going to stop and just look at it for a few moments.  Have a great day!

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Hypnos

Posted in Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , on May 17, 2013| 10 Comments »

GC Myers Hypnos 2013 smIn my last entry here, I wrote about talking to a couple of  art classes at a local high school.  I took a number of unframed paintings, something I normally don’t do because I really prefer that my work is always shown in a finished state with frames and mats, if the piece is on paper and  going under glass.  I’m a big believer that the work should be shown in its best possible setting in a way  that there is no distraction away from the focus of the work itself.  But I wanted these kids to be able to see the work in a more basic state, closer to their own work and experience.  The same way I see it in the studio.

There was one piece that was partially done, the composition completed in red oxide as was  the sky, a swirl  of many colors around an eye-like sun (or is it a moon?)  One of the things I wanted to do with this piece was to pass it around the class and allow the kids to get a better sense of the tactile nature of it.  I wanted them to be able to run their hands over it, to let the texture of the surface register on their hands.  This gives you a different sense of the work, no longer feeling like a distant scene but more like an object to hold.  Just looking at art from a different perspective sometimes changes our perceptions of it.

That painting, a 20″ by 24″ canvas,  is shown at the top in a more complete state, now titled Hypnos.  The focus of the piece is definitely, for me,  in the spiral colors of the sky.  It reminds me of  one of those  pinwheels that cliche hypnotists might use on a crummy TV show.  But it doesn’t have that goofy factor and indeed has  the effect of pulling in your attention in a mesmerizing manner.

This piece has changed quite a bit in the day since it went under the hands of those kids.  Mainly, the colors have deepened and transformed from the flat hues of the initial layers to ones that give it added depth and form  above the texture of the surface.   I think there’s a nice harmony here, a quietness in the abstraction of the forms that plays well to the title.  But the texture of the whole surface is the attraction for me.

I think I’m going to finish this up   and  go run my hands over it right now…

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Destiny

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on April 24, 2013| 7 Comments »

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. 

-Joseph Campbell

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GC Myers- Destiny AwaitsImagine us all as being boats on the oceans of the world.

 Some of us drift aimlessly, of course.  That was how I first set out.  No idea where I was going or even in which direction to navigate.  At any given moment, what might be my destination could have been  right in front of me or in a totally different hemisphere thousands of miles away and I would not know.  I had no idea what to even look for as I drifted.

But  some of us set out for a known destination and fully expect to arrive at that point.  We have studied the maps and charts and set a course, making all the needed preparations and taking every precaution.  We have sought out the advice of those who have made that voyage before and have formed an image in our mind of how the whole journey will go.

 But sometimes things don’t go as we plan.  Sometimes we get blown off course by storms and lose our way.  Or we were not as prepared as we thought for the hardship of the voyage.  Or the advice we received was mistaken.  Or sometimes we arrive and find that there is no room for us to dock or that our destination just wasn’t as we had imagined before we set sail.

 Perhaps ultimately that destination was not our destiny after all and we must set off once more in search of it.  It must be out there, that place, that one spot that we feel is totally our own.

I suppose this is how I see this new painting, an 8″ by 20″ on paper that I simply call Destiny.  It’s a composition that I have visited several times in the past and one that always attracts me for the simple elegance and balance of it.  There’s a confidence and clean sharpness in the way the image comes across that makes it very palatable– it immediately announces itself to the viewer, regardless of how they personally interpret it.

This piece’s destiny is my June show, Observers, at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.

 

 

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Running Free

Posted in Current Events, Recent Paintings, tagged , on April 21, 2013| 6 Comments »

GC Myers- In the ZoneIt’s hard to imagine that it’s been less than a week since the Boston Marathon bombing and all that followed.  It seems as though that so much has occurred that six days could not possibly hold it all.  I normally don’t do work that is topical in any manner and, to be quite honest, when I was finishing this piece I wasn’t even consciously thinking about the Boston bombing.  In fact, it was quite the opposite– I was working to shut out the emotion of the events.  it was only after finishing that I realized that there was some relevance in this piece, an 8″ by 16″ painting on paper that I call Running Free.

I originally thought that this would be a simple Red Tree piece, just the tree set against a fragmented sky.  Quiet.  Placid.  But I inadvertently started with a block that didn’t run level, giving it a sloped appearance.  As I worked on the sky, I thought about the challenge that the slope offered, an obstacle to overcome much like a runner looks at a hill.  I felt that  a runner moving up this slope was a good metaphor for the obstacles that we all at some point  take on and overcome.

The way the upper section– the sky– finished left a larger block that seemed to be a perfect  spot to place my runner.  Safely isolated, much like a runner might feel when they are in mid run and have blocked out the external.  In the zone, which was also the first title that came to mind in the aftermath of finishing this piece.

But looking at it I realized there was a connection to last Monday’s events, one that I had never intended.  The term freerunner came to mind  but that is so connected with the guys who run and jump their way through urban landscape that I opted for the simple Running Free.  All I could think of was of those people who challenge themselves with their running and find a release, a freedom, in it.  Who find sanctuary of a sort in going inward as they block out everything but their own thoughts and the road ahead of them.  And how that safe haven was invaded last week.

But runners are by nature strong-willed and will not be intimidated by cowardly acts.  I’m looking forward to seeing images of the runners streaming through London today as they run their marathon there  in defiance of those who seek to take away their freedom and their security.  May they continue to  run free…

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Island of Souls

Posted in At the Movies, Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , , , , , on April 19, 2013| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Island of Souls  Called Island of Souls, this painting, 16″ by 26″ on paper, uses the isolation of an island as its central theme.  I am not sure if my photography on this particular piece accurately captures the true color and feel of this piece so I may have to re-shoot this.  But this image does get most of what is important so I will get on with it.

The idea of an island has always intrigued me.  I think it comes from the paradox of perception that comes with them.  The isolation offers escape and safe haven from the outer world on one hand but at the same time has a sense of captivity and limitation on the other.  As an artist my working life is spent on such an island, either safely ensconced in the quiet safety of my studio or trapped in a self-made prison, depending on your viewpoint.

A lot of artists have trouble with this isolation but for me it has always been preferable.  I always think of  the film Papillon where inmate Louis Dega, played by Dustin Hoffman, finally accepts and adapts to his fate on Devil’s Island, the penal colony off the coast of French Guiana.  He eventually lives in a little hut away from the others and lives a quiet and simple life until the end of his life there.  I have always thought that , outside it being forced upon him as punishment, it was an existence to which  many  people might aspire, living on a tropical island with little to worry about from the outside world.

Maybe that’s what I see here.  I suppose it could be seen as some sort of a prison with the cluster of huts on a rocky island with a dock and no visible boat.  I tend to see it in more aspirational terms, as a place of peace with a sense of tranquility in the colors of this piece that complements this reading of this picture for me.

One man’s penal colony is another man’s paradise.

Here’s a song of the same name from Sting.  It’s from his 1991 album The Soul Cages and uses the island as a dreamed of place of escape for the boat builders of Newcastle as they toil over the great ships that they will never sail on.

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Dark Crossing

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , on April 14, 2013| 1 Comment »

GC Myers 2013“A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.”   

-Leonardo Da Vinci

 

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I’ve been working on a number of pieces lately that start on a black base of paint, rising from the darkness as each subsequent layer adds more and more light.  I still think of this additive  process as being a form of sculpture, one that starts with a flat surface and builds out in contours that give it definition and texture.  Each layer of paint is like adding clay to the supporting armature of the sculpture.  It’s a process that is hard to pull away from when I immerse myself in it. There’s something about seeing the colors grow more and more vibrant on the surface that becomes mesmerizing.  I guess that’s why I often refer to this work as obsessionism.

This small experiment, a 10″ by 12″ piece on paper,  is in this vein.   It’s one of those pieces that I’m just not sure about because I like it but I’m not sure if I like it for what it is or for the experience, the obsession of the moment in painting it.  Like a parent looking at something their child has done and wondering if they like it because it is truly good or simply because it was done by their child, their flesh and blood.  

Sometimes I can finish a piece and it instantly stands apart and on its own, complete and independent.  Ready to move on like a young person proclaiming their emancipation from their parents.   Other times, there are pieces that cling closer to me, perhaps too attached to yet  stand on their own, at least in my eyes.  Because I am unsure, I become more protective of these pieces because they do feel more personal, more of me.  

It’s a hard thing to describe, this uncertainty in a piece, especially when it feels objectively right.  Can a parent ever fully take out their own subjective view of their offspring and see them objectively as they really are?

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Guiding Lights

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged on April 11, 2013| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Guiding Lights This is a new painting, a 20″ by 24″ canvas, that I call Guiding Lights.  I showed the image yesterday on my Facebook page but didn’t have a chance to write much about it.  The title come from the the triangulated trio of elements that dominate this piece’s center– the lighthouse, the sun and the Red Tree.  Each represents the forms of guidance available to us as we navigate through life.

The lighthouse symbolizes how others move us along.  Mentors, teachers, family and friends who try to shed light on our path so that we may stay safe and  keep us from the dangers that lie ahead.

The sun represents the spiritual here, the guidance that many seek from their belief in a greater, omnipresent power.

The Red Tree in this painting  is a symbol for the instinctual, inborn guidance that we all possess to some degree.  It is our conscience, our intuition, our moral compass– each weighing our every move forward.

There is a path that tees near the bottom of this scene, in one direction heading right back into the greater mass of  red-roofed houses and the other heading out path edge of the houses where it becomes less crowded.  The path is isolated with only the guides I mentioned above  along for the journey.  This reminds me of something that I read a while ago, although I can’t exactly remember where it was or who wrote it at this early hour.  It was someone writing specifically about artists although I feel it applies to any endeavor.

The author wrote that in the development of an artist there comes a point where in order to reach their fullest potential, to find that singular voice, an artist has to be brave enough to move beyond their friends and peers.  They must leave them behind and move on alone.  It’s a vital step but a difficult one that most are not willing to take, if they ever even realize there is a choice to be made.

I think that’s what I see in this piece– the  journey for a personal vision and growth.

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Geometry of the Heart

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Folk Art, Influences, tagged , , , , , , on April 4, 2013| 11 Comments »

GC Myers- Geometry of the HeartIt was Opening Day for Major League Baseball the other day, which is always  a red letter day for me.  It’s sort of like 2013 has officially began, that my day to day life now has something with which to synchronize, something to fall in rhythm with.  So, even though I have been feeling under the weather for several days,  I was able to complete a new piece, one that had been banging around in my head for a long time.  It incorporated the perfect geometry of the baseball diamond nestled among a tightly clustered neighborhood of Red Roofs.  It’s an odd piece, one that feels both typical and atypical at once.  That’s a quality that I like.

ralph_fasanella_sandlot_baseball_1373_356I have been wanting to incorporate the baseball diamond into one of my landscapes, perhaps influenced by some of the folk art paintings that did it so well.  I have featured some of these here, such as Malcah Zeldis’ Homage to Hank Greenberg, shown at the bottom of this page,  or Ralph Fasanella’s Sandlot Baseball,  shown here on the left.  These are paintings I like very much as much for the baseball aspect as for the wonderful folk art manner in which they are painted.  There is something in the sight of a diamond that has a hypnotic effect on me, something I hoped to capture in a painting.

I always remember the feeling when I was a kid and we went to Shea Stadium to see the Mets play, especially for night games.  You would head out from the dim light of the concourse and emerge into the brightness of the field lights.  The green of the field was so vibrant, the brownish red of the infield dirt so rich.  There was something perfect in looking down on that diamond, a design that made so much sense to a child’s mind.  A beautiful geometry, one that equalizes weaknesses and strengths.  The length of the basepaths, for example, are such that  on a hard hit  ball to the infield a fast runner can be easily thrown out at first but a slower runner can often beat out a soft groundball.

Here, a small man could easily conquer a much larger man from a distance of 60′ 6 “, the distance from homeplate to the pitching rubber.   Skill overcomes pure strength, size and athleticism.  If you ever saw Michael Jordan flailing helplessly at minor league curveballs, you’ll know what I mean.

I could write a lot more here.  And I probably should.  But I simply want to show this new piece, a 20″ by 24″ that I’m calling Geometry of the Heart.  Here, the ball park, a Little League sort of field, represents the heart of the neighborhood, the openness of the field stands in direct contrast with the cramped houses.  This is a painting that I have really enjoyed painting, one that is probably more for myself than for anyone else but one that I needed to paint.

malcah-zeldis-homage-to-hank-greenberg

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Observers

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on April 2, 2013| 9 Comments »

GC Myers- Observers smallThis is a new painting that is called Observers, which is also the name of my upcoming June show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.  It’s a triptych that measures 24″ by 48″ and is on a birch panel.  Because I’m feeling a bit under the weather, I am not going to write much on this piece today.  I’ll reserve that for another time when I’m a little more on my game.  But I did want to show this painting today, to get some feedback on it.

Have at it…

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