Award-winning artist, James Griffin presents a show of new paintings created during the pandemic of 2020-2021. During that time the artist did as he usually does, paint, only more so. During the long months of lockdown, there were no restraints on what or how he could paint. The only rule he set for himself was that every brush stroke, scraping or mark had to be authentic. If an area in a painting seemed too facile or habitual, it was scraped off or painted over.
Walks around his neighborhood yielded many canvases and then a new location in Tennessee inspired a whole series on mountains. His wife, Debbie became a reoccurring subject in many of his paintings. Sometimes the subject emerged from an abstract beginning, the way the images appear in dreams without explanation. Time itself seemed to take a vacation, allowing for extended dreaming to find its way onto his canvases.
There is abundant variety in these images, but one common theme in all the work is expression. Juicy paint merges with forceful scraping and intense color harmonies. It is a riot of color that somehow manages to convey a sense of home. For the artist, home is more than a dwelling, home is where the color lives, where inspiration lives and where the heart is.
Gallery Hours: M F Sa 9 am – 5 pm, T W Th 9 am – 6 pm, Closed Sundays.
