Tom Gaines

Rock 222: Butterflies

2022

Oil on canvas on board.

Oil on board

Oil and graphite on board

Oil on board

James Austin Murray’s paintings are made using the most basic of means: ivory black oil paint, a canvas and wood-panel support, and wallpaper brushes—up to nine affixed to a long han...

Looking at her works of art, at first sight one is amazed, because still unfamiliar, in front of her fantastic creativity. Her characters seem to come from "different" worlds, sometimes distant, other times hidden within us. They walk through the woods and meadows, they peer over the shores where the waves break in a continuous and unstoppable dialogue. Often very small, hiding among the blades of grass, but also huge figures, like the characters from the fairy tales of when we were children, naive and still "pure". Here, this purity of childhood is slowly and inexorably awakened in us by looking at the works of Carin Grudda...

Gregg Robinson, American (born 1948) "Cipher Bar 20" Oil on Canvasboard Panel. Artist signed, title and dated 1990 far right. Very minor rubbing to paint. Panel measures 15-1/4" H x 63-1/2" W, frame measures 24-1/4" H x 72-1/4" GREGG ROBINSON The universe of visual art encompasses a huge spectrum of motivation and means of expression. Examples range from the most syrupy sentimentality to extremes of moral and intellectual confrontation. For me, the creative process is, on the simplest level, an aesthetic puzzle. Elements of the puzzle include contrast, color, visual texture, graphic pattern, and in some recent work, a simple cryptic symbolism. I have never been particularly interested in lyric or pictorial content, and though some of my work does contain undeniable spatial illusion, even that tends to be a by-product rather than a goal of the primary pursuit: the balance of light and dark, pure color and organic neutrals, energy and calm, strong pattern and subtle field. Having grown up in an environment of contemporary architecture, I have always valued the classic modern synthesis of form and function exemplified by the Bauhaus movement of the early 20th century. Hence, the simplest solutions are often the most satisfying. Obviously, the modernist ideal of efficiency in form and function requires that method of execution be as well adapted to the aesthetic goal as the visual language itself. The media before you is the result of many years of experimentation that came to its current form in early 1992. I work with dry pigment over a plaster surface. My tools are broad knives, sponges, rags and masking. The finish is a high gloss alkyd resin. CORPORATE COLLECTIONS: Allstate Insurance NBC Productions Alaska...

Gregg Robinson, American (born 1948) "Cipher Bar 19" Oil on Canvasboard Panel. Artist signed, title and dated 1990 far right. Very minor rubbing to paint. Panel measures 15-1/4" H x 63-1/2" W, frame measures 24-1/4" H x 72-1/4" W GREGG ROBINSON The universe of visual art encompasses a huge spectrum of motivation and means of expression. Examples range from the most syrupy sentimentality to extremes of moral and intellectual confrontation. For me, the creative process is, on the simplest level, an aesthetic puzzle. Elements of the puzzle include contrast, color, visual texture, graphic pattern, and in some recent work, a simple cryptic symbolism. I have never been particularly interested in lyric or pictorial content, and though some of my work does contain undeniable spatial illusion, even that tends to be a by-product rather than a goal of the primary pursuit: the balance of light and dark, pure color and organic neutrals, energy and calm, strong pattern and subtle field. Having grown up in an environment of contemporary architecture, I have always valued the classic modern synthesis of form and function exemplified by the Bauhaus movement of the early 20th century. Hence, the simplest solutions are often the most satisfying. Obviously, the modernist ideal of efficiency in form and function requires that method of execution be as well adapted to the aesthetic goal as the visual language itself. The media before you is the result of many years of experimentation that came to its current form in early 1992. I work with dry pigment over a plaster surface. My tools are broad knives, sponges, rags and masking. The finish is a high gloss alkyd resin. CORPORATE COLLECTIONS: Allstate Insurance NBC Productions Alaska...