Creatures of the Canvas
June 27, 2016
Our 12th Annual Fête opens July 1, which means this is an incredibly exciting time of year. New works are arriving daily.
This year (more so than any other) we find ourselves sharing space with extra eyes, and paws, and gills, and the like...creatures peering out from or moving across the canvas.
Human fascination with animals is long-running; the tendency to attribute human traits, emotions, and intentions to their behaviors is often considered an innate aspect of human psychology.There’s even a word for it: anthropomorphism.
But, whether you...or the artist dip into anthropomorphism or not, the sense of wonder that is stirred when peering at another life so close to but so different than your own, is a valuable experience seeped in solidarity.
Presenting the Artists of the Creature Feature:
Helen Durant
Sarah Hillock
KOLLABS
Les Thomas
Hunt Slonem
Douglas Schneider
Chris Reilly
JenMarie Zeleznak
Coming from a deep love for animals and an ongoing concern for the environment/wildlife, painter Helen Durant has produced a body of work that simultaneously honors and draws attention to the lives of animals.
In a process guided by the unconscious, Durant allows her paintings to emerge without force, using primarily charcoal and acrylics to translate the world around her onto the canvas.
The creatures in Sarah Hillock’s paintings are bold—profound—often making eye contact with the viewer, thereby challenging the potential apathy in their gaze. Combining realism and impressionism with the abstract, Sarah’s paintings employ bold brushstrokes, rich color, and sometimes poetry to frame the subjects in a manner that is accurate while simultaneously engaging the imagination of the viewer.
KOLLABS is the collaborative project of artists Luis Garcia-Nerey and Anke Schofield. Together, they create paintings of that are playful but not cute; provocative but not goading; often placing animals in human landscapes.
“This grouping of works focuses on the interaction between modern day human society and the forest. Our intentions are to see past the obvious environmental issues and concentrate more on an existential point of view." -Luis Garcia-Nerey
"My intention with each of my animal paintings is to forge some kind of amicable relationship between the patterns and abstract paint application, and a particular animal image. In this sense, the image is not merely a pretext for a painting. It actually provides the impetus for how the entire surface is to be treated." -Les Thomas
Seemingly, everything about Hunt Slonem is colorful: his life, his dress, his work. Best known for his vibrant images of bunnies, birds, and butterflies, Slonem’s paintings have been featured in more than 350 exhibitions at prestigious galleries and museums internationally.
Schneider’s newest piece just arrived at the gallery and is awash in monarch butterflies. Titled Disappearing, the painting is a dialogue on the plight of the increasingly endangered species of butterfly.
Using molten beeswax, damar resin, pure pigment, and watercolor, encaustic painter Chris Reilly builds, scrapes, chisels, and rebuilds layer upon layer of each painting. There is immense depth and luminosity to the finished pieces, the creatures within framed between layers of process.
Artist JenMarie Zeleznak uses watercolor pencils and manipulates the colors through a visceral, delicate process that she describes as being like "caressing or grooming an animal".
"The animals I depict are a medium for the expression of the self, yet they retain their own autonomy, embodying gestures that convey emotional form and are signposts of a kind, indicating shared aspects of being."
The 12th Annual Fête Opening Reception is July 1, from 5-8pm.
Please join us...and the creatures inside, for the festivities. Click here for more details.
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