Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged Alexandria VA, New Painting, Principle Gallery, Triptych on April 2, 2013| 9 Comments »
This 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…
Posted in Influences, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged Alexandria VA, New Painting, Principle Gallery, Red Roof Series, Red Tree on March 28, 2013| 2 Comments »
I am currently working on a new body of work for my annual June show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. I am calling this year’s exhibit, my fourteenth solo show there, Observers, and the piece shown here is one of the pieces that will make up the show.
This painting, a 16″ by 26″ piece on paper, is called Larger Than Life. It’s a continuation of the Red Roof landscapes that I have been showing on this blog lately. This piece was another that came from my early morning session in the studio when I had several images come to mind during a sleepless night. It evolved into something other than what I originally saw but I am actually more pleased with the final result than with the mental image that inspired it. In my mind I didn’t foresee the little peninsula that is home to the larger than life Red Tree but, as I worked along, it just grew out of the mainland on its own. It seemed a natural fit and I never questioned it and liked the way the causeway broke up the two blocks of color that make up the body of water depicted here.
The Red Tree is, as I pointed out, is larger the life which is obviously the basis of its title. I really wanted to make it unnaturally large and expressive, its trunk and branches more shrub-like than one might expect from such a large tree. I had toyed with the idea of a simpler, straighter and more sturdy tree but felt it would alter the entire feel of the piece and wouldn’t provide enough of a counterpoint to the uniformity and order of the houses that were on the opposite shore. I see the Red Tree here a connector, the thing that binds the everyday, represented by the houses, to the ethereal that the horizon and sun represent here. It needed to be bigger and more expressive and so it came to be.
I’ve been enjoying taking in this piece over the last day or so. The diagonals of color, the running ribbon of the path and the curves of the shoreline keep my eye moving through the piece. As I said, it is more than I originally saw.
Posted in Painting, tagged Alexandria VA, Corning NY, Principle Gallery, West End Gallery on January 24, 2013| 2 Comments »
The dates for my two annual shows have been set. Friday, June 7th, is the day that my solo show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA opens and at the end of the next month, on Friday, July 26th, my show at the West End Gallery begins. Show titles and other details will be forthcoming.
I have had long runs at both of these wonderful galleries, this being my fourteenth show at the Principle Gallery and my twelfth at the West End. This is sort of unusual in that it’s often difficult to have such long runs of exhibits at a single gallery without exhausting the market for your work. The fact that I have been able to have these long runs is something that I take great pride in because it’s a testimony to the continuing growth and evolution of the work through the years which has continually attracted newer collectors at these established galleries. I use this as a spur to keep pushing forward and during periods where I am experiencing the doldrums I only have to remind myself of those people who come to these shows to get my engines revving again.
We shall see what this new year brings for these shows. The piece at the top is a smaller new painting, 6″ by 8″ on paper, called Bright Outlook. I hope this painting’s title applies for the coming year for us all.
Posted in Biographical, Technique/History, tagged Alexandria VA, Cooperstown NY, Corning NY, Erie PA, Fenimore Art Museum, Just Looking Gallery, KADA Gallery, Nick Lowe, Principle Gallery, San Luis Obispo, West End Gallery on January 2, 2013| 4 Comments »
I’ve been hobbled a bit over the last couple of weeks by a pinched nerve in my neck that has made any work (or sleep) almost impossible to accomplish. Hopefully, it will soon fade and I will be working feverishly again. But while it has kept me from work, it has not prevented me from thinking back on 2012 and what it meant for my work. It was truly a great year for it, one that will be hard to replicate.
Four solo shows in galleries.
In June, there was A Place to Stand at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. It was my thirteenth solo show at a gallery that has meant very much to my career.
July found my show, In Rhythm, opening at the West End Gallery in Corning, New York. I started my career at the West End and this show, my eleventh there, may have been the best of the lot.
Inward Bound opened in October at the Kada Gallery in Erie Pennsylvania. I have been showing with the Kada for what will be seventeen years in early 2013 and had a show there every two years since 2004. This was one of my favorites there or anywhere. There was a wonderful review in the Erie paper that I featured here.
December found me on the west coast with an opening of my show, The Waking Moment, at the Just Looking Gallery in lovely San Luis Obispo. It was my first show with this long established California gallery with whom I began a relationship earlier in the year. They have done an absolutely terrific job in exposing my work to folks from LA to San Francisco. It was a pleasure meeting the collectors and staff out there I look forward to a long term partnership with them.
Of course, the biggest event this year was my first ever museum exhibit, Internal Landscapes: The Paintings of GC Myers, at the prestigious Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York. It opened in August and just closed this past Sunday, A fitting end to a great year. The show featured a group of my work from the past several years including the new The Internal Landscape , shown above, which is the largest piece I have painted and one that I featured on this blog early in the year as it was being completed. The response exceeded my expectations in all regards and remains the high water mark in my career to date. It has given me a new perspective on what my work is and what it might be. A great experience, all in all.
In between shows, there were gallery talks as well as my work being featured on the cover of a new CD, Lowe Country. Plus, several of my paintings found their way to Uganda to hang in the US Embassy there, accompanying the new ambassador.
Along the way, I met scores of great folks who shared their stories with me. Many thanks to everyone I encountered as well as more thanks than I can ever fully express to all of the staff at the galleries and at the Fenimore who gave me the gift of this year.
As I said, it was year that will be hard to match. But as soon as I am able, I will be trying to do just that. Or more.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Jimi Hendrix, NASA, Principle Gallery, Rhea, Saturn on October 12, 2012| 5 Comments »
After yesterday’s post, one that featured a NASA photo of Rhea, a moon of Saturn, I was asked by Clint from the Principle Gallery if perhaps I might be doing some outer space themed paintings in the future. I really hadn’t given it much thought , to be honest, but I suddenly remembered a few pieces I had painted many years ago, long before I ever thought of showing my work in public. They were experiments, the sort of thing I often worked on then when I was working out color and form. Abstractions, really. Most were pretty bad. But there was one that I always really enjoy when I stumble across it when browsing through a bin of old work.
Shown here at the top, this piece from 1994 has Third Stone From the Sun written on a corner. It’s a watercolor that was purely an exploration of color and shape. When I was done it struck me that it had the feel of some sort of galactic apocalypse, as though our Earth had suddenly decided to linejump Mercury and Venus to get closer to the Sun and this was the result.
It’s not a great piece but it makes me happy despite the obvious downside to the situation it depicts. At the time, I remember that it made me consider following this abstracted path but I opted to follow the one that has led me here. I often wonder what I would be doing at this moment had I chosen that path. Probably not writing this. But you can’t linger too long over such questions because you will never know. The paths through time fade quickly behind us.
Here’s the song that inspired the title, Third Stone From the Sun. It’s classic Jimi Hendrix in a mellow form.
Posted in Early Paintings, tagged Early Paintings, Principle Gallery on September 13, 2012| 4 Comments »
I came across a large plastic storage bin in the basement of my studio the other day that I had not looked into for years. It was filled to the top with sheets of paper filled with clumsy experiments, failed paintings and first steps from the earliest days of my journey into paintings. Much of it was cringe-worthy, dull and without much life behind it. As I said, first steps. Rehearsal pieces where I was working out the process that evolved into that which I practice today.
But occasionally there was a piece that seemed to jump forward. These pieces were fuller in their conception, livelier and united throughout the composition. They were the beginnings of the continuum of my work. They were in the days before the Red Tree had found its way into my visual vocabulary. They were often blank wide spaces filled with only mood and atmosphere.
At my talk at the Principle Gallery this past weekend, I talked about how early in adulthood I had aspired to be a writer but found myself writing about these wide and open spaces, writing only about mood and atmosphere. Hardly fascinating reading for very long. I set aside my writing and this image of open spaces until I found painting. My earliest work in paint echoed this atmospheric vision that had seemed so incompatible with my writing. The message had found its medium.
This piece, measuring about 5″ by 11″ on paper, from the first days of 1995, just before I started showing my work in public, had a title scrawled across its bottom edge, View From the Lonely Steps. When I came across this yesterday I immediately was back in that moment when that piece was formed. I felt that the painting was existing in the present, the now— an important part of the criteria that I use to weigh the worthiness of my work. It had life and it sparked a feeling of pleasure within me, like finding something you thought was long lost. It was a picture of who I was and who I am . It was different but still the same. It didn’t belong in a bin of discards.
There were others, as well, which pleased me greatly. I looked for a bit then I put them all back in the bin and closed it up. It was good to revisit that part of my past, to see where my road has once ran. A mirror to the past. It reinvigorated that inner sense of inspiration that sometimes feels as though it is waning in the busy times. It was simply good to see it again.
Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged gallery talk, Principle Gallery on September 10, 2012| 1 Comment »
I gave my annual gallery talk at the Principle Gallery this past Saturday. As I have noted here in the past, this is always a somewhat nerve-wracking time for me, something that might surprise you if you met me beforehand. I try to hide my fear and I think I do a pretty decent job. It must be similar to what an actor goes through in assuming a role, setting aside some parts of yourself and pushing forward those parts of yourself that you think fill fit the character you’re attempting to portray.
That’s always something I think about before these talks, this paradox of an artist doing a public talk, especially one that bases their work on emotional expression rather than technique and craftsmanship. They generally work in a most private way that allows them to better tap into their observational abilities and sensitivities, which are not traits well suited to a public forum. But I have come to realize that this part of the deal that I have made with those folks who like my work and find something of value in it. I owe it to them to speak honestly and openly even if it sometimes feels a bit too personal and confessional. My work is both and talking about it requires a truthful telling.
Of course, that often borders on self-indulgence. I know I feel pretty selfish standing up there and talking about my work, a feeling that often eats at me in the aftermath of these things. But I realize that the people that attend these talks have usually connected in some way with the work and have an interest in the story behind it. They may not see me as being as selfish as I often feel at these talks.
I sure hope they don’t.
If they do, they hide it most graciously. The crowd Saturday was wonderful, as they generally are, and inquisitive. There were many familiar faces and some new ones as well. There were a number of comments and questions which always carries the talk along. I spoke about how I came to painting, the story behind some of the icons such as the Red Tree and Red Chair and how the work has evolved. I also spoke about how I view and interpret the work. One participant, Dino Drudi, gave his interpretation of the painting shown above, Fire in the Heart.
He saw it as me being the Red Tree and the art elites and academics being represented by the purple of the fields in the foreground. The path that most artists follow goes through that purple allowing the elites to exert their rules and judgments over them. I have chosen to not follow that path and have instead made a moated refuge for myself where I defend my work from these rules and judgments. I’m probably leaving out some details. It was interesting and there may be some validity to what Dino pointed out as I do often consider myself an outsider to the larger art world. But I’ll still have to chew on that for a bit before I concede anything.
So, many thanks to all who made it to the talk. The inspiration that comes from your kind and gracious comments carries me for weeks and weeks in the studio. There were many in attendance who I didn’t get a chance to speak with afterwards and for that I apologize and hope that I get to speak with you again soon. Thank you so much for making me feel so welcomed and comfortable which means a lot for someone who feels uncomfortable in most situations.
Now, time for me to get back to work.
Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged Alexandria VA, Principle Gallery on September 6, 2012| 4 Comments »
I thought I would show one more new painting that will be on its way to the Principle Gallery for my Gallery Talk there this Saturday at 1PM . It’s a tall, thin piece, 4″ wide and 26″ tall on paper, called Chanson.
This piece was painted over several weeks, worked at whenever I had a few free moments and wanted to unwind a bit. I started at the bottom and just let the colorful forms grow upward, letting each block of color playfully work the next. It gave this piece a festive appearance and the feel of a confection- perhaps a colorful cupcake, bright and inviting.
But as it finished , the forms began to remind me more of music. It’s not something I can explain in any satisfactory way but when I look over the shapes and colors, each seems to trigger a sound, a note in my mind.
It was like a choral piece with many voices coming together within the thin parameters of the painting’s dimensions and being forced upward and channeled through the Red Tree that sits atop the stack. As though the tree was an embodiment of the totality of the polyphonic sound.
That’s where the title, Chanson, comes in. It’s a French lyric song, mainly from the Medieval times, that consists of multiple voices. A chant, you might say. It seems to fit for the way I see it– a colorfully bright song of many voices that rises upward in unison.
Again, this will be at the Principle Gallery on Saturday, September 8, when I give my annual Gallery Talk there. It starts at 1 PM. Hope to see you there.
Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged Alexandria VA, Principle Gallery on September 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »
This is a new piece, a 10″ by 16″ painting on paper called Over the Blues, that is headed to the Principle Gallery on Saturday. It will be part of a small group of new work that will accompany me when I travel to Alexandria for my annual September gallery talk there. The talk begins at 1 PM at the Principle Gallery on King Street and normally lasts about an hour. I try to keep it a lively back and forth so if you’re in the area, please stop and join in.
This piece appears dark at first with the deep blue fields and clouds but there’s a clarity that comes from the sky that brought the title to mind. The Red Tree here seems to rise above the darker, more ominous tones of the land around it and revel in the lighter atmosphere it has found. As though it has shed the burdens that had smothered it before and is now free to breath. Ethereal air.
Again, Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery in Old Town Alexandria this Saturday, September 8 at 1PM.
Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged Cooperstown, Fenimore Art Museum, Mary Cassatt, Principle Gallery, Willard Metcalf, William Matthew Prior on September 4, 2012| 7 Comments »
Cheri and I made our way to Cooperstown this past Saturday to see my exhibit at the Fenimore Art Museum. Cheri had not yet seen it and also wanted to see the American Impressionists show before it comes down on the 16th of September as well as the paintings of folk portraitist William Matthew Prior. Both of those shows were wonderful, particularly the Prior exhibit which gave a broader view of his work and the world in which he painted.
But we there to mainly take in my show there, of course. It’s always a strange feeling going into a space filled with your work. I remember the first time I had a solo show at the Principle Gallery back in 2000. When we came into the gallery, the work that filled the space seemed to surround and overwhelm us. Both Cheri and I felt a bit nauseous at first, as though it were just too much to absorb. I still periodically get that little bit of a tremble in the gut when confronted with a roomful of my work and I did feel it just a bit on Saturday.
But Cheri’s response to the work took away any tension I was feeling. Her eyes opened very wide and her face glowed as she came to the top of the grand staircase and spotted the painting that was framed perfectly in the doorway to my exhibit. We went into the space and she turned, taking in all the walls with a glance, a broad smile on her face.
“Amazing. It’s perfect.”
That was all I needed to hear. I was happy as I could possibly at that moment. I have often kidded that she is often my harshest critic but that is simply the result of a directness and honesty that comes from 35 years of marriage. I trust her opinion and her glowing approval set aside any apprehension that might have been lingering. I began to take in the work without worry.
For me, it was most satisfying seeing the very large painting, The Internal Landscape, shown at the top center here. I had never seen it hang on a wall, especially with the beautiful lighting and atmosphere that this space offered. It was all that I hoped it would be on the wall and my eyes kept coming back to it. The rhythm of the piece really rang out in that space and seemed to connect with all of the other pieces that surrounded it. The works there seemed to be alive on the walls and there is a really nice warmth and continuum running through this group of work that seems to envelop you when you enter the gallery. That’s a nice feeling and I think it’s a great representation of my work to this point.
It was also interesting to go back into the gallery after taking in the work of the Impressionist masters that took up the adjoining larger gallery space. I initially was a bit afraid that my work would not fit well, would be overwhelmed by this work. I mean, there is gorgeous work there from Mary Cassatt, Hassam , Glackens and Willard Metcalf— all painters that I have long admired. It is a bit intimidating. But coming back into my gallery, Cheri commented how well my work held up next to their’s and I realized that I didn’t feel as out of place with my work there as I thought I might. In fact, I no longer felt intimidated in the least.
I hope that doesn’t sound egotistical. It’s certainly not meant to be and I would never put myself up to the level of the time-tested masters. But leaving the museum that day, I felt as though I had fully shown that my work had its own truly individual voice, one that had the same validity and integrity as the work of any painter. That was a good feeling on a very good day.
Redtree Times 