Spotlight: Grant Drumheller
November 9, 2019 — January 11, 2020
About the Show
With technical mastery and clean, strong colors, Grant Drumheller creates a dynamic interplay between abstraction and visceral, emergent figures. His canvases beautifully capture life at a particular, fleeting moment of time.
Drumheller describes his process as follows: “I will have a vague idea and wait, just hold the idea, turning it in my mind until it builds to a point where I have to begin the painting. It can begin by something as simple as a texture of paint leavings from the palette. Sometimes I will paint big shapes of arbitrary color….
I wait until I can jump into the picture with all fours. It can sit for months with the ‘overture’ on it. I am waiting for it to call to me. Often when I start a picture over, I will obliterate the painting underneath with a dark glaze of red or green- not related at all to a subject- or paint a live coat of pale color to work out of. Guston often worked on a wet wall of paint- a full-on surface of fresh titanium or titanium and lead white and started to draw. I usually work one painting at a time. I obsess with the demon on the easel…
I want them to look fresh and quick, a little on the ‘rare’ side, and entirely intentional. Nothing is worse than a labored large painting. Usually there is a moment when the picture identifies itself, and it really should be painting itself. You just have to have your ears up and be on alert for it- oh and stay out of the way.”
Artist Talk (2019): https://youtu.be/eQuiwMSGNXc
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