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Posts Tagged ‘Principle Gallery’

Open All Night

Posted in Music, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on September 7, 2014| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- Moonshadows

GC Myers- Moonshadows

I am in the midst of preparing a group of work to take with me when I go to Alexandria this coming weekend for my annual Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery on Saturday.  It’s like a mini-show with some new paintings fresh from the studio including the piece shown here, Moonshadows.  It’s a smaller painting on paper, a 6″ by 9″ image, that moodily focuses on the moon and the  shadows cast from it by the Red Tree and the Traveler on the path.  It’s a simple and quiet piece, one that invites thought.

I have also narrowed down the field for the painting that will be given away in a drawing at the Gallery Talk.  There are two pieces that I am going back and forth on, both having real meaning for me.  As I pointed out before, it’s important to me to give away work that is real and alive at these events and I think either of the two pieces I am considering easily meet that requirement. I will reveal the piece in the next day or two so check back.

Being Sunday it’s time for some music and in keeping with the theme of the painting I chose an older song, Open All Night,  from Bruce Springsteen’s great 1982 acoustic album, Nebraska.  I find it hard to believe that this album is over thirty years old but when I consider how many times I have ran these lyrics through my head as I’ve been driving somewhere, I am less surprised.

Anyway, enjoy and have a great Sunday…

 

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Upcoming Events

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on September 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers-Into the Valley of Color smThe summer shows are past now as I turn to the autumn months where there are a couple of things on my calendar.  First, on September 13th, I will be giving a Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria.  It begins at 1 PM and runs for an hour or so.  There will be a drawing for an original  painting of mine to be given to someone in attendance plus there will be some other surprises.  I am going through my painting here in the studio trying to decide which piece will be the prize this year.  There are some strong contenders, all having some personal meaning for me.

I will also be bringing a small group of new work for the gallery.  Included is the piece shown above, Into the Valley of Color.  It’s a larger painting, measuring 36″ by 36″ on canvas, that I have been enjoying for the last few days here in the studio.  It has a real presence that draws me in when my eyes turn its way.

Next on the calendar is a new solo show, The Common Ground, which opens December 5th at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA.  I have been showing at the Kada Gallery for going on 19 years and always enjoy my visits there.  I am pretty excited by the direction in which the work is headed as I prepare for this show.  I think it will be a very strong group.  I will be posting updates through the next couple of months.

So, if you’re in the DC area on September 13th, please stop into the Principle Gallery.  For my friend in Western Pennsylvania and NE Ohio, I will see you in December.  I had better get to work!

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Allura

Posted in Influences, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 26, 2014| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Allura smI am putting together a small group of work to take with me for my upcoming Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery next month, on September 13th.  Among the paintings is this 24″ by 24″ canvas that I am calling Allura.   After finishing this piece, it seemed that the moon was the central focus, the tree and landscape holding an attraction for it.   I wanted something that described that but was sort of nebulous, not really well defined.  What better way to do that than with a word that sounds descriptive and perhaps from a foreign language but has little basis in its meaning.

You see this a lot in automobiles.  The Integra.  The Elantra.  My favorite is the Cadillac SUV, the Escalade.  Oh, its a real word in French but it means the scaling of a fortification’s walls with ladders such as in a military attack.  I’m not sure how this means anything to the vehicle perceived image.

But the word Allura stuck with me.  It had its base in the word allure and that was what I was seeing in it.  It was simple and efficient and even a bit elegant.  But looking it up just to make sure it didn’t have some other meaning I found that it is an girl’s name used mainly in the 18th and 19th century in England and America.

But even more interesting was that the name’s given definition was Divine Counselor.  I liked the name even more with this little bit of info.  It seemed to fit as even better for me than the vague word implying the moon’s attraction.  I could see the Red Tree here perching itself on that rise of earth and asking for some sort of guidance from the tranquil presence in the night sky.

I feel right with the name Allura now.  It sounds like it fits and ultimately, it does…

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The Elusive Path

Posted in Early Paintings, Painting, tagged , , , , , on August 19, 2014| 5 Comments »

GC Myers- The Elusive Path 2000 smWhile going through the group of older work that I have here in the studio last week I came  across this painting from back in 2000 called The Elusive Path.  It’s one of a small handful of pieces from that time that are still in my possession which means,  since my pre-2000 documentation was pretty spotty, that it is one of the few pieces from that period that I can closely examine.  Oh, there are a few others but they are pretty much misses, paintings that are lacking  in some way.  Some are just too worked over– I was trying to make something out of nothing and didn’t have the tools yet to  do so– and some  are just blah.

But then I pulled out this painting, one that I hadn’t really looked at with intent for years.  This was probably due to a bile green frame that put a taint on the whole thing, making me want to not look for too long in its direction.  I looked at it for a moment then decided I needed to unframe it before casting any judgements on it.  I just couldn’t get past that frame’s influence over the whole.   So I did and was truly pleased with what emerged.

Without the hulking presence of that green frame, this piece felt new again, as though it had a grasp of where I was wanting the work to go at that point and was moving in that direction.  Oh, there have been changes, evolutions of elements and color-handling but the forms and lines are in the continuum.  Plus it held one of the earliest incarnations of the Red Tree which had more or less premiered at my first solo show, fittingly titled RedTree, at the Principle Gallery in 2000.

I’m sitting here this morning looking at this piece now and it seems so different than the painting I had thought of  for all these years as simply being the unfortunate picture trapped in a horrible frame.  It feels alive and new now and I feel a sense of pride in it that I never expected.  I’m looking at it next to a new painting in progress and even though the new one is being painted in a different process with some elements that were not in my vocabulary back in 2000, there is no denying the line that runs from one to the other.

They are one and the same in being true expressions of what I am or desire to be.

And maybe that is the lesson here.  We might be obscured by our trappings, as this painting was by that frame, but if we remain patient and true to what we believe to be our best self we will eventually find a way forward, find our way to our desired destination.  We can find that elusive path.

 

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Night Still Comes

Posted in Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , on July 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Confessor Blue smYet another Sunday morning finds me in the studio working.  My show, Traveler,  at the Principle Gallery ends this week and my next show, Layers at the West End Gallery, opens in a few weeks on July 25th so there hasn’t been much of a break.  But that’s okay, I like the busyness and purposefulness of it.  It forces me to keep my head down and concentrate.  To forge ahead instead of being distracted by shiny things, something to which I , like many others, am prone.

Not that distraction is a bad thing.  You find interesting things when you allow your eyes and mind to wander and that, too, eventually finds its way into your work.  But that is for another time when there is a deadline involved.

So, its back to work.

But it is Sunday and I have made a habit of having some music on this day’s posts.  This week I am featuring one of my favorites, Neko Case, who I have featured many times over the years.  This is Night Still Comes from her most recent CD, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You– which is quite a mouthful.  I chose the painting above to go along with it.  Its title is  Confessor Blue and its one of the remaining paintings at the Principle Gallery show.

Enjoy and have a great Sunday…

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Quester’s Path

Posted in Influences, Opinion, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on June 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers-Quester's Path smIn the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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      I write a lot about the search for something and in reality I have no idea what that thing is.  Gandhi says that  it is Truth that we seek.  His Truth may be the same as the wisdom that others claim to be seeking.  Others say that life is a search for self or love or to shatter loneliness.

      As for me, I just don’t know.  I have thought it was many things over the years– truth, self, wisdom and a place to fit in.  But none of those ever truly fit for me.  I am not sure I am equipped with the wisdom to handle the truth and, as far as fitting in, I gave up on that some time back.  And I have the self too elusive a thing to seek for too long. It sometime feels like looking for a Bigfoot– you think you may have found it but it always ends up not being what you hoped.

      So I am left filled with even more uncertainty.  And I think this uncertainty is a good thing because it makes me believe that the real quest is for a reason, a purpose for our existence.  And maybe that makes the quest the  real purpose– to be aware of our world, our lives.  To hold up each day, to examine each moment.  Maybe in each moment there is that truth, that wisdom. that sense of self and inclusion, if only we look with some uncertainty, not knowing why we do so.

      But as I say, I don’t know.

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The painting at the top is Quester’s Path and is 8″ by 14″ on paper.  It is part of the show, Traveler, at the Principle Gallery.

 

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Shambhala at the Principle

Posted in Influences, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on June 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers Shambhala smJust a reminder that my show, Traveler, is currently on view at the Principle Gallery and will be hanging there until July 9th.  One of the pieces still available is the piece above,  Shambhala, an 18″ by 36″ canvas piece that I wrote about on this blog back in early March.   It’s a painting that I feel very strongly about.  Since that was three months before the show went up, I thought I might replay that post today.  In March, I wrote:

According to Buddhist tradition, Shambhala is name given to what they consider the Pure Land, a utopia of sorts whose reality is as much spiritual as it is physical.  A place where everyone achieves a state of enlightenment and peace and tranquility.  Author James Hilton morphed the name into Shangri-La for his novel Lost Horizon which describes a group of Westerners who find themselves the guests in a small idyllic nation of this name tucked away in a protected Himalayan valley.

Whatever you call it, the idea of a place of enlightenment and peace seems pretty attractive to me these days, given the many events going on in the world being driven forward by such negative factors as greed, hate and fear.  That tranquil inner place is what I see in this new painting, an 18″ by 36″ canvas that carries this name, Shambhala.  The road , for me, represents the search that leads to this elusive state and the sun  a blissful guide with a warm lure that radiates throughout the sky.  The Red Tree is on a small peninsula set into a calm body of water, still attached to the world  but in an ethereal space.  It is in a state of being where it is firmly in the moment, having set aside the past and disregarding the future.  Just absorbing the now.

That’s what I see and that is what I imagine how that moment might feel but I am still on that path, looking ahead for a sight of that hopeful destination.

 

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After “Traveler”

Posted in Biographical, Music, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 8, 2014| 2 Comments »

GC Myers-Peerless sm

“Peerless” – Included in the “Traveler ” Show

I am back in the studio this morning  after returning from Friday night’s opening of Traveler at the Principle Gallery.  There is  a sense of relief in the aftermath, a deep exhalation at having mostly completed my obligations for the show.  But there is often a letdown as well,  a combination of having passed the endpoint  you’ve been working towards for months and  natural self-doubts about things you might have done differently in this show.  Fortunately, this show left me with only the mildest of letdowns.  I am already focused on my next projects and as far as doubts, while there may be just a few minor ones, I am sure that I have done all that was in my power for this show and the work in it.

We had a lovely few days in Alexandria, blessed with the best weather we’ve seen in all the years that we have been visiting in early June.  In the past, we have often endured 100° temperatures, torrential rains and excruciating humidity on this weekend.  But this year it was as perfect as the weather could possibly offer with temps in the high 70’s, blue cloudless skies and low humidity .   I am available for other  regional  weather reports, as well!  In short, perfect conditions to wander around the area a bit before the show.

We attended the ceremony  at the World War II Memorial honoring the living veterans on the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion.  It was a beautiful setting there on the Mall, often moving,  and I felt very honored to be able to spend a short time in the near presence of those vets who survived that day of days.  We also were able to see the Andrew Wyeth show at the National Gallery that I wrote of earlier in the week.  It was wonderful to see so much of his work together, to be able to see the constancy and consistency of his personal vision as well as his ability to capture deep emotion within his scenes.

All in all, it was a great stay.  But the highlight was being to see many of the folks that I have met over the years who opted to spend some time at the gallery instead of out in that perfect weather.  I know that if I were in their shoes, it would have taken a lot to get  me there.  But for the many who did turn out and to Michele and her great staff– Clint, Jessica, Pamela and Chris along with guest bartender, Fernando Ascencio– I  extend a simple and grateful Thank You.  I wouldn’t be here right now writing this if not for you all.  And that I will always remember.

Okay, it is Sunday morning and we need to music.  I was thinking something calming while I decompress.  Here’s a classic Vince Guaraldi composition, Cast Your Fate to the Wind.  It has some of those same elements that you might recognize from his iconic work with the Peanuts gang.

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“Traveler” Opening Tonight / D-Day Remembrance

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on June 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- UnforgettableTonight is finally the  opening for this year’s exhibit of my work at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.  Titled “Traveler”, this show marks fifteen years that I have been fortunate to have been asked to exhibit a solo show at the Principle Gallery, a fact that I wear as a badge of honor.  It’s something that I would never had expected when I began doing this and it pleases me that I have been able to maintain a level of consistent growth through this time.  It makes me want to continually surpass each past show and this year is no different.  I feel that  group of work is as good, if not better in its own way, as any group I have put in display there in the past.

So if you’re in the Alexandria/ DC area tonight, please stop in at the Principle Gallery.  I would love to see you there.  The piece that is shown here, Unforgettable, is from the show.  I am showing this painting because in a way it relates to a much more important aspect of this day – it is the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy during World War II.

Many people, myself included, are in awe of the tremendous sacrifice and courage of those men on that day and rightfully so.  I can’t sit here and even believe for a second that I could do what they did on those beaches that June day in France in 1944.  But I can honor the memory of those who didn’t make it off those beaches and honor the lives of those who did.  So many who survived are now giving way to death in old age– as it should be–so it remains to us, the living, to maintain the memory of that day and the blood they gave to the land.  And hope and pray that such a day should never again come in our lives.

I see this in this painting.  Let their memories be unforgettable.

On this day, I think it is fitting that Taps be the music for this day.  Here is a version from Arlington National Cemetery ( just a few miles down the road from Alexandria) performed by United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” bugler,  SSG Drew Fremder  in the starkness of winter.  It is a song that never fails to bring a tear to my eyes.

Hope to see you tonight at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria.

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Proclamation/ Redux

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on June 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I am on the road today so  being short on time  I am reposting a short entry from a couple of months back, in early April.  I normally don’t repost articles so soon after they first appear but I consider this painting, Proclamation,  an important part of my show , Traveler, which opens tomorrow night at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.  It represents for me the culmination of the journey, the end point for which the entire journey was made.  It is about a true realization of self, of attainment of goal .  And therein lays the central theme of this show– that our lives can have direction and purpose.

So, without any more words, here is what I posted earlier:

GC Myers- Proclamation By health I mean the power to live a full, adult, living, breathing life in close contact with what I love — the earth and the wonders thereof — the sea — the sun. All that we mean when we speak of the external world. A want to enter into it, to be part of it, to live in it, to learn from it, to lose all that is superficial and acquired in me and to become a conscious direct human being. I want, by understanding myself, to understand others. I want to be all that I am capable of becoming so that I may be (and here I have stopped and waited and waited and it’s no good — there’s only one phrase that will do) a child of the sun. About helping others, about carrying a light and so on, it seems false to say a single word. Let it be at that. A child of the sun.

—Katherine Mansfield

October, 1922, Her final journal entry

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I came across this final journal entry from the writer Katherine Mansfield, who died much too early from tuberculosis at age 35, and thought how much her words fit what I was thinking about this newer painting shown above. I call this 30″ by 40″ painting Proclamation and the thought and feeling it may be proclaiming might very well be the same as those expressed by Mansfield.

It is a painting that speaks of coming to an understanding of one’s self and stepping forward in the light to show that true identity. It is at once flawed and beautiful. Flawed by the scars of attained wisdom and change. Beautiful because it is honest and real, open to the elements and all who look upon it. It has become, to use Mansfield’s term, a child of the sun.

I think it would be too easy to say too much here.

Let it be at that. A child of the sun.

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