October Final Friday, showcasing John Gary Brown

Here is a sneak peek of John Gary Brown’s work for our October Final Friday show. We can’t help but gush about the way his work fits so naturally in the gallery.

Don’t miss the opportunity to see it up close and personal tomorrow from 5-9pm!

Here is the artist's statement:

My paintings, although basically non-objective, are often organized around a horizon line, and they are intended to be seen as landscapes, inspired by the prairies of my home state of Kansas, the watery vistas in the Puget Sound area, or the more ordered grounds of rural Europe. The arid regions of the Middle East and Southwest United States provide references to the decayed, full circle magic that seems to reflect the beginnings and the end of earth’s cycles, and lately I have begun to look inward, toward a landscape of dreams and meditation. Whatever the point of departure, the landscape for me is part of that unhurried, inexorable natural process that deserves respect and emulation. Structure or phenomena are sometimes implied but rarely spelled out, so that an air of mystery pervades the imagery and the painting process becomes an essential part of the subject matter. I am an admirer of J.M.W. Turner and the post impressionist artists who flirted with abstraction, but I’m also influenced by modern masters like Mark Rothko and Richard Diebenkorn.

The paintings are executed in layers. A wash of free-flowing “under painting” is applied by brush and allowed to form organic shapes, before the canvas is placed face up in the studio, so that the contours will stabilize and partially dry. When the paint is ready for another layer it will be applied by brush, print brayer or cloth. Some areas of the submerged color will be revealed by paint rag or palette knife, providing an interior luminosity that can’t be attained by painting onto the surface. Oil paint is the only medium I use for this process. Drawing is worked into the image with a brush or the edge of a print brayer and this process is repeated in several layers until the painting is completed. 

I will occasionally make veiled references to natural forces in nature, such as wind and water, or to the transitory works and activity of mankind, but I believe our marks upon the earth are superficial and fleeting. I try to depict and celebrate what is truly elemental on the planet- the endless handiwork of water, atmosphere and light. Many of the canvases are named for places and circumstances brought about by the manipulations of humanity, but the dominant feature in each one is the ongoing celestial process. 

I have been a professional artist since 1970 and my work can be found in over five hundred private, museum and corporate collections. I have shown in thirty galleries over the years, from New Jersey to Seattle, and have participated in almost one hundred exhibitions, many of them one-man shows. In Seattle my work has been featured with Dale Chihuly, Kenneth Callahan and Mark Toby. I keep a studio in Lawrence, Kansas, and Creede, Colorado, and look forward to many more years of painting.

For more information about the artist, please visit http://www.johngarybrown.com/.