Idaho artist Silas Thompson’s new body of work emerged from time spent in and around the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park last fall. Appropriately, it will be revealed at Gallery Wild in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in an exhibition titled The Veiled Apologue,from June 12 through 22.
Royal Alpenglow, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in.
Thompson’s latest landscapes are a combination of the style of paintings he has become known for—dense, dappled thickets of woods and flickering aspen groves that dissolve into various degrees of abstraction—and more experimental pieces that further explore the way we perceive the world around us.
One of the anomalies in the collection is Drawn Back,a highly impressionistic depiction of the iconic Grand Teton all lit up in dawn’s alpenglow. The colors of the craggy peak leap beyond the contours of the mountain into the blue sky around it.
Dawning, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 in.
Thompson says, “I think a lot about how the human eye functions and how we have this area of clarity and hyper-detail, accompanied by everything in our periphery, which really dissolves into extreme abstraction, but it’s also seamless. If you try to pinpoint that spot where it transitions, your focus just moves over. You can’t move your focus around in a painting the same way the eye can, so you have to be the architect and director of where you want the focus to be.”
Drawn Back is the outcome of one of several studies Thompson painted on site, and brought back to the studio as reference. “That’s where you really get the opportunity to push some things and experiment…It’s my attempt to capture the human visual experience.”
Thompson pushed his use of color to the extreme in Royal Alpen Glow,where the complementary hues of orange and blue create an almost vibrational effect between the foreground and background.
Drawn Back, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
Collectors of Thompson’s work can also expect to find paintings in his more traditional style, including The Tide of Autumn, featuring a stand of aspens with a meadow and mountains in the distance. Unlikely teals and purples dance around the canvas in harmony with the trees’ signature gold leaves. “The effect that I was after was to try to convey how the light really gets to bouncing around in the grove there,” Thompson explains. “I am trying to convey both the depth and, at the same time, play with what is going on within a couple of feet within an aspen grove. I think a lot about the juxtaposition of large spaces and small spaces, and how to convey that within a painting.”
A favorite subject of Thompson’s, aspens crowd the painting Dawning, the eyes of the forest peeking out from the tangle of branches and trunks.
The Tide of Autumn, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in.
“They’re one of the largest living organisms,” he says. “So when I paint aspens I will often try to convey a sort of unity…as if they’re not individual trees, but a series of [interconnected] shapes.”
The Veiled Apologue opens with an artist reception on June 12 from 5 to 8 p.m. in the gallery.
“Silas Thompson’s upcoming solo exhibition is a vibrant homage to the Mountain West’s captivating beauty,” says gallery owner Carrie Wild. “Silas masterfully captures the essence of our region, from the golden hues of fall aspen groves to the majestic mountain landscapes all through a textured, palette knife painting application. His deep-rooted passion for these wild spaces shines through each brushstroke, inviting viewers to experience the serenity and grandeur of the natural world.” —
Gallery Wild 80 W. Broadway » Jackson, WY 83001 » (307) 203-2322 » www.gallerywild.com
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