For a new body of work being unveiled this month at Altamira Fine Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, David Grossmann found himself reminiscing about a transformative sunrise on the summit of Mount Sinai in Egypt.
Although he climbed that peak more than a decade ago, Grossmann, now the father of two young children, is more keenly attuned to the passage of time than ever. He applies the same powers of observation to nature, and his canvases as they evolve over time. “My son is 3 and my daughter almost 1, and every day they’re a new person and yet they’re the same…so there’s this continuation of who they are and who they’re becoming,” says Grossmann. “With my work, it’s the same sort of process, whether it’s the colors in the sky shifting during the day, or looking at the same scene but in different seasons and seeing what changes and also what remains.”
Lines (Autumn), oil on linen panel, 30 x 40 in.
Aptly titled Continuations, his September show will feature abstract and representational works inspired by the natural world. “For me, the correlation is both visual and emotional. When I see that piece with those autumnal colors it conjures the feeling of being out in the woods in my favorite season of year,” he says about the painting Lines (Autum). On a visual level, it shares the vertical lines, palette and textures in more representational works like Continuations, Autum.
Continuations, Summer, oil on linen panel, 40 x 60 in.
In some of the pieces, including the colorful scene Continuations, Summer, deer peek out through the stands of aspen trees, still and alert. One day, while painting in plein air, two fawns spent the afternoon watching him paint.
“Ever since then, I’ve had a sense of being ‘watched’ by the forest and I think deer have become symbolic of that…The [markings] on aspens are called eyes, even the flowers are looking out…I used patterning to bring out that sense of being watched and that quiet, mysterious feeling I have in the forest.”
Continuations opens on September 9 with a reception the following evening from 5 to 7 p.m. —
Altamira Fine Art 172 Center Street, Suite #100 » Jackson Hole, WY 83001 » (307) 739-4700 » www.altamiraart.com
Powered by Froala Editor
