New Richmond Gallery: Metrospace Gallery

Last Friday evening I had the opportunity to hang some of my figurative paintings at the soft-opening of a new gallery on Broad Street. My work hung on one wall and the other wall displayed the abstract paintings of Will Turner (alas, no link provided because his website isn't finished yet.) For those who are familiar with my landscape paintings, you will see that, aside from my love of vibrant color, my figurative paintings seem quite a departure. Below are the paintings included in this show. These are large works focusing on women, with strong psychological and narrative content. While I am steadily continuing to develop and grow as a landscape painter, I will also be developing some new works more closely aligned with these large figure paintings, perhaps moving away from the narrative and further into abstraction. We will see! For more information on these paintings please contact me.

Regarding Metro Space Gallery: This is a huge new gallery and event space located in the heart of the downtown First Fridays Art Walk. It isn't quite finished yet (they are finishing the floors today as I write this) but even in its austere state it is a beautiful new space. The gallery is located at 119 W. Broad Street, right next door to Metro Sound and Music (same owner). I am not a gallery spokesperson, but from what I could gather, I believe they are on target to open in September if not before.

Update 7/25/07: The paintings of mine that hung in this exhibition are now on display at Plant Zero in the exhibition hall near the event space. :-)

From figures to landscapes (and back again?)

From time to time I receive wonderful messages from students who have chosen my work as a focus for their school projects. Here is a recent message I received. My answer follows: I wanted to ask if you could tell me about yourself and your paintings. I am studying A-levels and I am doing a critical study on you. Could you please let me know how you got into drawing landscapes. I would appreciate it.

Thank you so much for your interest in my artwork! As to your question: In college and for some time thereafter I was developing a body of work that focused on the human figure. These paintings were heavily influenced by a number of sources in art history-- Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt, and the early renaissance paintings I had seen in Italy and the Netherlands:

One of my favorites from this period "Faith", Oil on Canvas (sold)

So how did I go from that to landscape? Well, in college I held a double major of study in both painting and art history, so I was a lover of art of many different styles and from many different periods in history. I loved the impressionists and the post impressionists but impressionist landscape paintings were not much favored with my professors at the time. Professors at my school were much more attuned to paintings of either a nonobjective nature, or figurative paintings with deep psychological impact. So I developed the figurative paintings as my "serious body of work" and only dabbled in landscapes every now and then.   But eventually I found myself struggling more and more with the figure paintings. They were very large and some of them were filled with a lot of angst. One painting took weeks to complete. Emotionally they were often quite draining and my inspiration was slowing down. When my father died of pancreatic cancer all of the work I had been doing on those  paintings came to a complete halt. I began to question a lot of things, including whether I would ever do another painting. My heart just wasn't in it.   My husband naturally knew of my struggles and, knowing how much I had loved the landscapes of Monet, Sisley and many other impressionist painters, he bought me my very first outdoor easel. He also signed me up for a painting class so I could learn to paint on location outdoors. I loved it from the moment I tried it. I began painting again, and I finally allowed myself to follow my bliss and paint the landscape. After the death of my father I really wanted to do things that were more life affirming, that filled me with joy. I realized life is indeed so very short and I wanted to celebrate it in a way that had meaning for ME, without worrying about whether others found it artistically "important".   Painting the landscape was one of the ways I could honor that desire, and I have been painting them ever since. Nowadays I also enjoy experimenting with other kinds of painting, including abstraction, and sometimes even the human figure again. I believe that an artist has the right to explore it all, if that is her desire.   I hope this helps you with your project!

And now for something completely different

A while back I posted about experimenting with non-objective work, so I thought I'd share the results here. I'm not sure what you'd call this configuration of canvases...an installation? In any event, I installed this piece in my living room this weekend during the power outage, and even without electricity it brightened up the place. This is my first abstract in quite a while:

As an artist exploration and experimentation is very important to me. On the surface this doesn't seem to have much relationship to my landscape paintings, but there is something to learn here, and perhaps at some point these experiments can also help me to grow with my landscapes as well. In any event,  it was fun, fun, fun! Installed, this work is pretty large, measuring about 39" across by 40" tall. The small canvases to the side may not be quite to scale, so I will try to photograph the whole thing installed in the room and post it here when I do.

Here it is in the room:

One day when I have time I'd like to get rid of those green walls, but I guess they'll have to do for now.

painting artist abstract art non-objective painting

Creativity

I thought I'd write a little bit about creativity today since it has been on my mind a lot lately. Often times people will equate creativity with "production". But for me, a lot of things go on "below the surface" that I would equate with creativity, even if there is not a lot being produced as a result.

Right now I am involved in a lot of experimentation and exploration that doesn't necessarily result in a finished painting or drawing. It's possible that some of these "experiments" may find their way here on my blog if I feel particularly happy about them and want to share, but the real point is to always explore new ways to grow.

Sometimes I go through periods of high production followed by things taken at a much slower pace. I pay attention whenever I reach a certain comfort level with my work. Comfort can be a good thing--a really nice and in the flow feeling. But sometimes I feel so comfortable that it makes me downright uncomfortable, if that makes any sense! That is when I know it is time to regroup, branch out, take a break, experiment, or do a little bit of all of the above.

For example, today I have drawn out a new painting of Tuscany. I've also got an abstract painting underway. Who knows where that will lead me? And "on the side" I've been painting lamps and furniture, just for fun (and because I need some lamps and furniture!) Now I know that there are some art marketing gurus out there who may not like me doing so many different things. You should focus on one thing and do it well! I have heard that over and over again, and I can be, and have been a pretty good focuser. I do believe it is important for artists to develop their voice and a strong body of work. But I also know the value of experimentation, just for the sake of exploration.

So I'm playing with landscapes and different mediums. I'm playing with non-objective artwork. Temperatures have been in the high nineties here lately so not much playing en plein air, but when the weather breaks I'll probably play with that too. And I'm playing with furniture. Since the lamps are the only things I have pictures of right now, I'll post those here:

These were old seventies olive green lamps (the "old" olive, not the "new olive") that were tinted with bronze and had those brown speckles in them that you see in a lot of decor from this time period. I had a "before" picture of them somewhere, but I can't find it. I bought these at a yard sale ($5 for the pair) and painted them a metallic turquoise to match my turquoise pillows. I also applied a silver leaf to the base of the lamps and bought simple linen shades (since I figured there was enough going on with the lamps!) They may be a little too "Liberace" for some folks but I LOVE my lamps! Here is a close up:

The landscape shown in this photo is one I did of a Key West scene. To see more of my Key West paintings, visit my website here.

Tags: art painting landscape painting artist plein air

Older Work

I've been pretty busy getting ready for a show in Greenville, NC next week, so have not had much opportunity to upload new images to the website. I added a couple of new ones this morning though, and will add more as time and weather permits me to photograph them. Meanwhile, since I've mentioned my older work a couple of times, I thought I'd share a few of my older, very different paintings. I was heavily into symbolism and archetypes when I did these. Some of my influences were Chagall, Kahlo, the German expressionists, Klimt, Schiele, and others in the symbolist and figurative traditions. I also went bananas (and still do) over the early renaissance paintings I saw in Italy and Belgium. So, lots of imagery, and lots of "mood"! These pieces are all fairly large. I no longer display these on my official website, because they are so different from what I am doing now:

"Flora" (oil on gallery wrapped canvas, approx. 52" high x 36" wide). Those are bees flying out of her mouth. Represents spring renewal (possibly after a hard winter?)

 

 

 

"Abundance" (oil and gold metal leaf on gallery wrapped canvas, 36"h x 48"w). This is "Flora" after she gained some weight. Just kidding! Represents the abundance in life, fertility, nurturing, etc.

 

 

"The Fool" (oil on gallery wrapped canvas, 48"h x 36"w). This is based on the first card in the archetypical journey of the Tarot. Represents new beginnings, adventure, hopefulness, but tendencies toward being a bit fool hardy too (note, the parachute is not open!)

 

 

 

"The Night Sea Journey" (oil on gallery wrapped canvas, 48"h x 60"w). All about the dark night of the soul.

 

 

 

"The Marriage Contract" (oil on gallery wrapped canvas, 36"h x 48" w)

 

 

These kinds of paintings garnered some shows in places like Purdue University and the Hofstra museum. The photography isn't great so some are very dark (literally and figuratively, I guess!) There are a few more, but these give an idea of what I was doing before I started painting landscapes (you can see my current landscape work online at www.jenniferyoung.com).