Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on the road and 1960s West Coast art. His main subject is modernism’s footprint on the outposts of Americana, places typified by harsh artificial light and hard shadows on concrete. For Young, despite the contemporary art world’s preferences for irony, disjunction and tongue-in-cheek intellectual gamesmanship, painting is at its best when it attempts to offer an unpretentious accounting of where and how we live our day-to-day lives. The celebrations of urban sprawl offered by artists like Ed Ruscha, who famously took no-nonsense aerial photographs of 34 Los Angeles parking lots in 1967 and created sleek, stripped-down paintings of Standard Oil stations, are an obvious point of reference in Young’s work. But Young’s choices seem more personal than Ruscha’s and his technique is certainly more painterly. His images of gas stations are uneasy amalgamations, cobbled together from his memories of road trips, photographs and pure invention and rendered with a sense of atmosphere and drama seemingly at odds with his use of hard lines and simple geometric shapes. Young activates every square inch of his canvases, blocking in large passages of negative space with skeins of scruffy countervailing strokes. He is not a fussy painter, nor is he out to prove his mastery to an audience. Like Edward Hopper, Young tends to eschew a lot of paint’s seductive properties, preferring to create hard edges and large, gently undulating planes of subdued color. He draws the viewer into an unpopulated, uncluttered world with a clear horizon line, but one that is also filled with hiccups, discontinuities and compromises. For Young, the cold comfort offered by outposts of convenience like gas stations, airports, cheap hotel rooms is not so easily dismissed. Young shares the strange buoyant optimism of his hero, Jonathan Richman. Spending time with Young’s paintings, one can’t help but feel the echoes of that thrill.
Passing Protrusion
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on...
Canvas, Oil
First Light
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on the road, and 1960s West Coast art. His main subj...
Oil, Panel
$1,700
Red Hardbody
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA --Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on the road, and 1960s West Coast art. His main subject is modernism’s footprint on the outposts of Americana—places typified by harsh artificial light and hard shadows on concrete. The show makes clear that for Young, despite the contemporary art world’s preferences for irony, disjunction, and tongue-in-cheek intellectual gamesmanship, painting is at its best when it attempts to offer an unpretentious accounting of where and how we live our day-to-day lives. The celebrations of urban sprawl offered by artists like Ed Ruscha—who famously took no-nonsense aerial photographs of thirty four LA parking lots in 1967, and created sleek, stripped down paintings of Standard Oil stations—are an obvious point of reference in Young’s work. But Young’s choices seem more personal than Ruscha’s, and his technique is certainly more painterly: His images of gas stations are uneasy amalgamations, cobbled together from his own memories of road trips, photographs, and pure invention, and rendered with a sense of atmosphere and drama seemingly at odds with his use of hard lines and simple geometric shapes. Painters today tend to lean on pastiche, on art-historical mashups and code-switching. This typically results in images with no unified style and no concern for pictorial space, illusionistic or otherwise. For many contemporary painters, the picture plane is simply a flat, delimited arena in which different types of visual syntax collide, floating freely. This is a non-strategy in which artists make an end run around some of the thornier problems of composition, perception, and cognition. Young bucks this trend. He activates every square inch of his canvases, blocking in large passages of negative space with skeins of scruffy countervailing strokes. He is not a fussy painter, nor is he out to prove his own mastery to an audience. Like Edward Hopper, Young tends to eschew a lot of paint’s seductive properties, preferring to create hard edges and large, gently undulating planes of subdued color. He draws the viewer into an unpopulated, uncluttered world with a clear horizon line—but one that is also filled with hiccups, discontinuities, and compromises. In Service in the Rear, for example, a shelter for gas pumps in the foreground—closest to the viewer and, therefore, logically a dominant compositional element—is rendered as a hazy silhouette that flagrantly disobeys the rules of linear perspective. This is intentional: The structure is only important to Young in the way that it draws the viewer’s eye below and past it, to the glowing, low-slung building dominating the lefthand side of the picture. Thus Young shows his talent for creating visual tension and drama—and for sidestepping the viewer’s expectations. Young understands that some might regard his brand of painting as obsolete. He also understands the troubled legacy of modernism, and what the triumph of universal technology has meant for cultures around the globe. Still, for Young, the cold comfort offered by outposts of convenience—gas stations, airports, cheap hotel rooms—is not so easily dismissed. Young shares the strange buoyant optimism of his hero, Jonathan Richman, who, in his early ‘70s proto-punk single, Roadrunner, exults in the simple act of driving past the Stop’n’Shop with the radio on...
Oil, Panel
Resting Fuselage
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA --Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on ...
Linen, Oil, Panel
In the Park
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on the road, and 1960s West Coast art. His main subj...
Canvas, Oil
Active Runway
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA --Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on ...
Oil, Panel
Natural Body
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on the road, and 1960s West Coast art. His main subj...
Canvas, Oil
Placid Comeback
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on...
Canvas, Oil
Meadowland Erections
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on the road, and 1960s West Coast art...
Canvas, Oil
End of Inning
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, lif...
Canvas, Oil
Departure Beat
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, lif...
Canvas, Oil
Roosevelt
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on the road, and 1960s West Coast art. His main subj...
Canvas, Oil
Suspension
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on the road, and 1960s West Coast art. His main subj...
Canvas, Oil
Red Borough
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on the road, and 1960s West Coast art. His main subj...
Canvas, Oil
$8,500
Yellow Grid
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, lif...
Canvas, Oil
Sodium Vapors
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, lif...
Canvas, Oil
$1,350
H 14 in W 11 in
Night Doorway, dark, mysterious urban architectural oil painting
By Gregory Frux
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Night Doorway, Oil on panel, nocturne Park Slope, Brooklyn Dr. Rowland S. Russell PhD. writes about his experience directly witnessing Greg's practice as a “plein air” artist: Whet...
Oil, Panel
The Florida Waterways, Fishing the Inlet
By Joseph McGurl
Located in Greenwich, CT
American, b. 1958 Designated a living master by the Art Renewal Center and widely regarded as a leader of the American landscape school, Joseph McGurl is one of the most important realist painters today. McGurl works almost exclusively with oil paint, capturing marine and landscape scenes in his native New England as well as other areas of the Eastern US. Along with his childhood as a muralist’s son, McGurl’s days as a sailor and his studies under Robert Cormier...
Linen, Oil
$975
H 11.25 in W 15.25 in
"Texas Hill Country Landscape With Cattle" oil painting of wildflowers, cactus
By Don Warren
Located in Austin, TX
Canvas Size: 12 x 16 in. Frame Size: 20.5 x 24.5 in. Signed, lower left: "Don Warren" A serene, classic, and cheerful scene in the Texas Hill Country by Don Warren. The foreground i...
Canvas, Oil
$2,750
H 26 in W 48 in D 1 in
“Kennebec” Ship Portrait Sidewheeler Steamboat Paddle Steamer Oil on Canvas
Located in Yardley, PA
A striking and historically attentive portrait of the sidewheel steamer Kennebec, built in 1842. Rendered in crisp profile against a soft, painterly sky and calm Atlantic swells, Cameron’s portrait captures the stately elegance of early American steam navigation. The Kennebec, identified in bold red lettering on her paddle box, is shown under partial sail with twin smokestacks active - suggesting both the hybrid nature of early steam propulsion and the vessel’s readiness for sea. Flying period flags, including a U.S. ensign and company pennants, she presents as a proud representative of the Sanford Steamship Line, for whom she plied the route between Boston, Bangor, and the summer resorts of Maine. Her design, with a wood hull, 230-foot length, and distinctive “hogging truss,” speaks to mid-19th century innovation tailored to coastwise packets. Cameron’s style is reminiscent of 19th-century ship portraiture yet refined with contemporary technical precision. This is an excellent example of his work. This work is oil on canvas and is signed in the lower right. It is housed in its original black frame and retains the artist’s description of the ship on the reverse. Size: 22 inches tall by 44 inches wide (painting) 26 inches tall by 48 inches wide by 1 inch deep (frame) Provenance: Private collection; Acquired from the above About the artist: A Delaware artist, Scott Cameron paints the simple elegance of the America’s Cup races, serene coastal marsh scenes, timeless landscape vistas and historic steamboats in a style reminiscent of the era in which they reigned. An admirer of Andrew Wyeth and the Brandywine School of painters, Scott has combined the detail and quiet stillness of that School in his landscapes with the Luminist School’s sense of light glowing from within. A soft gentle atmosphere seems to fall over each scene adding to the peacefulness of the setting, and a sense of a time gone by. His America’s Cup scenes capture the action at a moment in time, allowing the beauty of the wind-filled sails to become the central design element of each painting. Scott Cameron has exhibited his oil paintings in numerous national and regional shows from the Mystic Seaport Museum to solo and group shows in some of the foremost galleries throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Favorite painting locations are the waterways and coastal inlets of Martha’s Vineyard and Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the gentle rolling landscapes of rural Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Meticulous research is behind every historic steamboat and America’s Cup painting...
Canvas, Oil
$3,200
H 16 in W 24 in D 2 in
Realist Landscape Original Oil Painting- Small Green Tonal Midwestern Scene
Located in Marco Island, FL
This is a great American landscape painting by the artist, Clyde Singer. Gorgeous tonal shades of green and grey depict a stormy midwestern landscape. Framed 16 x 24 inches Canva...
Canvas, Oil
$2,400Sale Price|20% Off
H 11 in W 14 in D 1 in
"Coral Cove Rock" oil painting, beach sunbathers gathering around large boulder
By Carl Bretzke
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"Coral Cove Rock" is an oil painting by contemporary artist, Carl Bretzke. Coral Cove is located in Jupiter Florida, known for it's large rocks along the b...
Oil, Linen, Panel
Pine Bank Arch, Central Park
By Nicholas Berger
Located in Greenwich, CT
Central Park during winter 1946
Oil, Panel
$7,500
H 19.5 in W 15.5 in D 1.5 in
“Eastern White Pines, c. 1910”, New England Landscape, Signed Oil Painting
By Charles Warren Eaton
Located in Yardley, PA
“Eastern White Pines, c. 1910” by Charles Warren Eaton (American, 1857-1937). A wonderful example of Eaton’s renowned compositions of Eastern white pine trees in his mature style. A...
Canvas, Oil, Board
$2,750
H 26 in W 48 in D 1 in
“Penobscot” Ship Portrait Sidewheeler Steamboat Paddle Steamer Oil on Canvas
Located in Yardley, PA
A wonderful realistic portrait of the Penobscot, a mid-19th century coastal sidewheel steamer, rendered in Cameron’s hallmark marine portrait style - technically meticulous, historically informed, and visually serene. Executed with crisp linework and a soft, luminous palette, the ship is shown in profile navigating calm Atlantic waters under both steam and sail, her red paddle box emblazoned boldly with her name. Commissioned in 1843 by Menemon Sanford’s Steamship Line and constructed in New York, the Penobscot was a near twin to her sister ship, the Kennebec, but became especially prized for her seaworthiness. Measuring 228 feet in length with a 48-foot beam and twin 14-foot paddlewheels, she carried schooner rigging fore and aft, providing the added stability necessary for coastal and offshore passages. Initially assigned to the Maine coastal excursion routes, she would later be reassigned to the elite New York–Philadelphia line and eventually sold and renamed Norfolk for pre-Civil War service along the southern coast. This work is oil on canvas and is signed in the lower right. It is housed in its original black frame and retains the artist’s description of the ship on the reverse. Size: 22 inches tall by 44 inches wide (painting) 26 inches tall by 48 inches wide by 1 inch deep (frame) Provenance: Private collection; Acquired from the above About the artist: A Delaware artist, Scott Cameron paints the simple elegance of the America’s Cup races, serene coastal marsh scenes, timeless landscape vistas and historic steamboats in a style reminiscent of the era in which they reigned. An admirer of Andrew Wyeth and the Brandywine School of painters, Scott has combined the detail and quiet stillness of that School in his landscapes with the Luminist School’s sense of light glowing from within. A soft gentle atmosphere seems to fall over each scene adding to the peacefulness of the setting, and a sense of a time gone by. His America’s Cup scenes capture the action at a moment in time, allowing the beauty of the wind-filled sails to become the central design element of each painting. Scott Cameron has exhibited his oil paintings in numerous national and regional shows from the Mystic Seaport Museum to solo and group shows in some of the foremost galleries throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Favorite painting locations are the waterways and coastal inlets of Martha’s Vineyard and Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the gentle rolling landscapes of rural Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Meticulous research is behind every historic steamboat and America’s Cup painting...
Canvas, Oil
$800
H 8 in W 10 in
"Onions II" Original Oil Painting, Still-Life Kitchen Painting
By Elizabeth Zanzinger
Located in Denver, CO
Elizabeth Zanzinger's (US based) "Onions II" is a masterfully created realistic oil still-life. This painting measures at 12 x 8 inches, and is framed at 13.50 x 9.50 inches ready t...
Oil, Panel
$955Sale Price|33% Off
H 14.18 in W 10.63 in
Street of the Old Quarter British School signed Cade oil on canvas painting
Located in Sitges, Barcelona
**Technical Sheet** **Title:** "Street of the Old Quarter" **Author:** British School, 19th Century **Date:** 1892 **Technique:** Oil on canvas **Dimensions:** 14.17 x 10.63 inc...
Canvas, Oil
Looking into the dining room
Located in Lexington, MA
Carole Rabe’s Looking into Dining Room is a beautifully composed 24 x 12 inch oil on canvas that transforms a simple domestic view into a meditative interior landscape. In this intim...
Canvas, Oil
Flowing Away
By Trevor Young
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA --Trevor Young is a quintessentially American painter. He makes no bones about his affection for the trappings of car culture, life on ...
Oil, Panel