Bruce Garrity, Recent Work
A large painting, 70″ x 58″, oil on canvas, this artwork was displayed along two similar sized paintings at 3rd Street Gallery as part of Bruce Garrity‘s presentation of his recent paintings this past June. The horizontal composition is constructed of high key, lush, complementary swaths of color, climbing, sinuous fields of marks, patches, streaks and strokes of juicy oil paint. The color chord of the painting is warm oranges, and deep, cool blues; the upper section of the painting is lifted up with bright, sun drenched flame reds, golden ochres, coppery umbers denoting energy and warmth, the lower part of the picture is lower key color with blues pooling in the picture like a stream flowing across rocks.
Using diagonal planes of color, a zig zag path winds through the painting, along the way are evocative markings indicating resting points for the eye before continuing the hike up to plateau shapes depicting an expanse of natural scenery. The composition naturally divides into quadrants of color ways, the upper triangular warm hued field balanced against cooler tones of umber, blue, and taupe in an equivalent proportionality of shape line and color. The diamond design with the lower point weighted by the inverted pyramidal shape of the blue triangle is topped by tree trunk shapes leaning across each other, keeping the composition, albeit grand in scale, an experience of a solitary, quiet, elusive excursion with a calm resting point.
Within the diamond are units of color piled up like rocks, the patchiness, tilting, slipping levels of tone and hue guide the eye towards the safe warm spot in the center. The diamond is held up on the right side by blocky, squarish rectangular areas of blank canvas accentuated with descriptive marks smeared on the canvas directly from the paint tube with urgent intense masses of color. In the lower left quadrant is a triangular field of pale tan color punctuated with a blotch of blue holding up the diamond by pushing against the green/blue with a gradient field of cadmium yellow, energizing the color chord with strength and power. The upper left quadrant is skewered with vertical strokes of paint in a multi-colorful, vibrantly described tree units that weave in and out of the landscape. The right top quadrant is composed of tree trunk shapes that fan across the space. Changing from the orangish, peachy diagonal, the apex of the diamond, to the dark shadowy, cool, low key hued pair of tree units pushing down, grabbing the landscape, with an in-and-out stepping pattern that defines the atmospheric depth of space with color. The dynamic of the illustrative mark-making, exuberant brush work, decorative and stylish color combinations, and romantically contemplative landscapes are distinctively Garrity.
Bruce Garrity at 3rd Street Gallery June, 2017.
Bruce Garrity will be showing at Perkins Center for the Arts, 30 Irvin Ave. Collingswood, NJ 08108
856-235-6488, September 9th – October 21st. Artist reception is September 23rd, from 6:00 – 9:00pm http://perkinsarts.org/event/juxtaposition/
Written and photographed by DoN
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