Birds of a Feather Artist Profile: Craig Kosak

Seattle artist Craig Kosak says this about his work in the show:

My current work is inspired by encounters during a tour of national parks in the summer of 2005. The goal of the trip was to gather subject matter for a series of landscape paintings and I spent weeks hiking in the wilderness of Yellowstone, Glacier, and the Grand Tetons.

The trip, as it turned out, became something of a vision quest – where I would indeed find inspiration for a new body of work, though it was not the inspiration I sought. Lovely as the landscapes were, what stuck with me were repeated encounters with wildlife – especially ravens and buffalo. Over and over again, and quite by surprise, I found myself in their company as if they had a message for me. My work is an exercise in understanding that message, of seeing the world, and the human condition through new eyes.

Hints of mythology and an altered view of time are starting to appear in the work, presenting themselves for further study and exploration. Each painting explores the way these beings see the world and wonders how their perspective might improve our lives.

Birds of a Feather Artist Profile: Jim Eppler

Jim Eppler brings the power, beauty, harshness, and magnetic attraction of nature to his bronzes. This Lubbock, Texas artist creates from the experience of his lifelong enchantment with wildlife and his innate gift for the use of color and form.

Animals and their habitats constantly draw Eppler to their world. When researching a particular species, he moves quietly into the world of wildlife. He watches, listens, learns, and photographs the remarkable dimensions of wildlife and their habitats. “My photos reveal their form and habits, but their gift to my soul is what inspires me to sculpt.”

His ability to accurately capture his subjects in bronze has earned Eppler the respect of both colleagues and collectors.

Birds of a Feather Artist Profile: Cheryl Warrick

Cheryl Warrick is a Boston-based painter best known for her richly colored and quilt-like paintings that explore the journey of wisdom. In her work she incorporates folk wisdom, proverbs, symbols, and landscapes. Her work asks the viewer to open doors to find visual relationships in the paintings and quietly discover their meaning.

Cheryl's work can be found in numerous collections including, The Boston Public Library, Boston Museum Of Fine Arts, Philadelphia Free Library, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions, Fidelity Investments, and Lucent Technologies.

Birds of a Feather Artist Profile: Sarah Rogers

Sarah Rogers was born in Seattle, but raised with central Florida winters and Black Hills summers. Sarah's medium is watercolor, usually combined with graphite. She frequently applies several layers of heavy color to create the bright tones and often opaque quality of the paint. Sarah prefers smooth surfaces and uses hot pressed paper or plate smooth illustration board.

Sarah graduated from the University of Florida at Gainesville, worked as a graphic designer in Charleston, South Carolina, then moved on to New York City, where she spent seven years as an art director for an advertising agency. Sarah now lives and paints in the Northern Black Hills.

Birds of a Feather opens January 5 with an artists' reception from 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Thought for the day

"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist." -- Louis Nizer

Art 101: Impasto

Today's term, which is from the Italian for dough, comes to mind because of the way Alan Jones, whose work is in the gallery right now, uses oil paint.

Impasto, according to the art experts at the Tate in London, is "an area of thick paint, or texture, in a painting. First noticeable in Venetian Renaissance painters Titian and Tintoretto, then in Baroque painting, for example Rubens. Increasingly notable in nineteenth-century landscape, Naturalist, and Romantic painting.

"Use of impasto became more or less compulsory in modern art as the view took hold that the surface of a painting should have its own reality rather than just being a smooth window into an illusionistic world beyond. With this went the idea that the texture of paint and the shape of the brushmark could themselves help to convey feeling, that they are a kind of handwriting, that they can directly express the artist's emotions or response to the subject."

Of course, a painting is worth a thousand words. Come in to the gallery and see how Alan defines impasto.

Q&A with Alan Jones

The gallery is showing new work by Alan Jones through December 16. Alan's work always gets a lot of attention. For one thing, he paints large: his pieces are up to five and a half feet tall by nearly seven feet wide. (The one shown here, "Where the Meadow Meets the Woods," is 64" x 80".)

Alan's paintings are also incredibly detailed. People tell us they feel as if they could step right into the scene.

Because we always get a lot of questions about Alan's work, we asked him to answer some of the ones we hear the most. Feel free to ask a question of your own and we'll post Alan's answer.

How long have you been doing these kinds of paintings?
I have been painting depictions of the forest since 1986 and began working outside in the early 1990s.

How long does it take to paint one of these large paintings?
Typically six months from start to finish and from 150 to 200 hours.

How do you work?
Painting is a solitary activity. I work alone and normally for a number of hours at a stretch. On average, around half of the work is done outside on location, which involves the use of a make-shift “easel” (more of a support really) in the woods. Once I begin working inside on finishing the piece, I typically do not take the piece back outside again. I work outside all year except for very cold or wet weather, and have painted outside in all months. Working outside has a number of challenges, including changing light, wind (a real problem with large canvases), and falling debris! At one point, I thought I was going to get charged by a deer when it ran within 3 feet of me. The locations are all close to home so I carry the canvases from my studio to the location by hand.

Is there anything on the canvas to give the painting that texture?
The texture is the outcome of a layering process (metamorphosis) but is not the goal of the process.

Your work makes some people think of Seurat. Were you influenced by his work?
Seurat is not a key influence although in a general sense I am influenced by his work.

What artists have influenced you?
Balthus, Vermeer, Turner, Rembrandt, many Italian artists.

Why do you use oil instead of acrylic?
I have always painted in oil and have never considered acrylics.

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting Gallery Fraga's new blog!

This companion to our web site is where you can get a behind-the-scenes look at current shows, read interviews with our artists, find out what's coming up in the months ahead, and get some background information that can help you appreciate art more fully.

And, because this is a blog, it's interactive. We'd love to hear from you. Please feel free to respond to our posts with comments of your own and ask questions about the gallery or art in general.

Again, welcome.