By Jeff Ferst
Located in Boston, MA
El Bosque en Tlaxcala
10.0 x 10.0 x 1.5, 5.0 lbs
Oil Paint
Hand signed by artist
Artist's Commentary:
"Ferst is a flamboyant and whimsical painter. He captures the essence of traditional landscape painting and turns it on its ear, creating vibrant and bold paintings of nature and the rural and urban images of Mexico. He is best known for his vibrant landscapes of the southwest and his storied abstractions and colorful landscapes. Recently Jeff travelled to Oaxaca and Puebla and is now transforming his memories and images from that trip into his studio creations. This is the first painting from that trip. It is a study for a larger piece currently being worked. The image is of the cool and amazingly magical forest of Tlaxcala, a state near Mexico City. The forest is at 9200 ft and is where the fireflies in summer go to mate. The painting edges are painted black and it is wired to hang."
About the Artist:
Jeff is a colorist, an abstractionist and most of all a storyteller. Over the years, since early childhood, he has created art. In his youth in the Bronx drawing was his thing. In his early years at NYU Jeff was a print maker and created vibrant serigraph prints and etchings. He also was enamored with the tactile arts - ceramics and sculpture. He was lucky starting off to get representation at a Greenwich Village gallery – the 8th Street Gallery when he was 19. Then as a young adult Jeff discovered Canada, moved to Toronto and found his stride as a painter. Still true to his colourist roots painting still life and landscapes of the Canadian countryside. Galleries liked the work and began to represent him. As Jeff grew as a painter he began to play with texture. He also began to explore abstractions. The abstractions were at first fluid geometrics which were a play of color, form & texture. At the same time he was continuing his landscape paintings to meet the demand of his gallery affiliates. Then he fell in love with Tucson and the Sonoran desert. Moving there in 2012 changed his life. After moving there the work changed. Jeff's love of the desert came out in his work. Vibrant sunsets of intense colour became the focus to satisfy those who followed his landscapes and his abstractions became stories of life in the desert. These deconstructed landscapes if you will are vibrant paintings rich in symbol and emotion. Then in 2019 he moved to Mexico - San Miguel de Allende. Like Tucson it is the high desert, but it is more temperate and offers a better quality of life and freedom for his family and work. Here he paints glorious colorful stories of life in this colonial city. Jeff also paints nature - his garden and the abundant flora and fauna of the area. Recently he joined up with a cooperative gallery in SMA called Galeria Izamal. Throughout his career he has participated in a variety of known shows like Red Dot Miami, Scope Hamptons, Art Expo, etc, and has had relationships with galleries here in the US and Canada. He also has been a supporter of the US State Dept Art in Embassy program and has had more work exhibited globally including alongside Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Robert Indiana. In fact in the exhibition catalog his work "Fantasia" was singled out for being the "flagship piece of the exhibit." Jeff has also had the good fortune to have various publications cover his work calling his paintings “flamboyant,” “juicy,” and “full of life”. These days he can be found in his studio painting or doing a new mosaic...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Landscape Paintings