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!

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).

Oil painting substrates

I thought I'd write a little here about some of the oil painting substrates I use on a regular basis.Canvas: The canvas I use most often for anything over 16x20 inches in size is one that has staples only on the back side of the stretcher bars. Small metal tacks are nailed into the sides of the stretcher to hold the canvas secure. This is a very sturdy, fine canvas with an old world look to it, primed with acrylic gesso. The surface is smooth enough so that it is not absorbent, but not so smooth that there is no canvas "tooth".

The stretched canvases I have been using for my landscapes are standard-depth canvas (around 3/4" deep), so generally the finished paintings are finished off with a frame for display. The great benefit to these canvases is that their depth allows them to easily fit into any variety of frame styles and mouldings, from the very traditional to the very contemporary.

I have lately been considering trying some gallery wrapped canvases for my landscapes. I used to use them in my older work, like the painting shown here. The gallery wrapped canvases are deeper than the standard canvas and have no staples around the perimeter, allowing the canvas edges to be painted as well. They offer a clean contemporary look, and have the benefit of being lightweight and versatile. While these canvases can be framed, one needs to find frames that have very deep rabbet depths so that the canvas edge (which is around 1 1/2" deep) does not extend beyond the frame when you look at it in profile. In general these canvases are meant to have painted edges and are displayed unframed.Panels: Often times for smaller works I will use birchboard panels or gessoed canvas that is mounted on a hardboard or wood panel. (I never use the canvases that are mounted on cardboard. They are too cheap and flimsy and don't hold up for professional use. In any event they are not archival and I use archival materials for my work.)The panels are great for painting out of doors (painting "en plein air") because they are flat and can be packed and carried more easily than stretched canvas. Sometimes I will prime these panels with a neutral base coat of gray or raw sienna. I use these when I travel and for smaller works no larger than 16x20":

 

 After a while they do get heavy, however, so I am always in search of the most lightweight option available! The lightest I've found is the birchboard panels, but these are not commercially available. The birchboard (shown here, bottom gray panel) can be purchased at the hardware store in larger sheets that I have cut down to size. They have a smooth side (for painting) and a rough side. However, I prime them on both sides to seal them and prevent warping.