Being outdoors isn’t just a passing hobby for painter Silas Thompson. It’s a part of his upbringing and history.
The Soul’s Season, oil on canvas, 60 x 48 in.“I grew up roaming around the Mountain West. My father began taking my brother and me on pretty long backpacking trips when I was around 12 years old, in and out of the Sawtooths and the Rockies,” Thompson says. “We would venture further west and south as well, and while each region of the West seemed to have its distinct natural icons, there was this common running vein I began to treasure that almost seemed like the lifeblood of the mountains—aspens. Anywhere you go in the West, if you get high enough, you find aspens, and it felt like this promise kept by creation that was constantly proclaiming the life, death, burial and hope of new life from season to season, year after year after year. The aspens are like the mountains’ language. Sometimes we count our years in winters but the aspens let you count your years in something fleeting but almost eternal.”
At Last, oil on canvas, 36 x 60 in.
The artist has a new show, Up on the Mountain, opening November 19 at Gallery Wild in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The show will offer views of the mountains from all seasons. It was an intentional decision for the artist, so autumn and spring scenes will hang next to summer and winter images. Each painting comes with its own unique palette.
A Proclamation, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in.“We like to ask people their favorite season in the West, but, in truth, you can never really find the edges of one to the next so there is definitely crossover between the two color palettes. It seems to be a case of major/minor,” he says. “When I remove all the warms from a winter piece, I often get works that are disconcerting or overly cold and less inviting than I want. This can be effective, but what I’m usually after is major warm/minor cool or major cool/minor warm. It is really fun in the studio to play around with this effect and try to learn how far I can push it in either direction or how close I can get to a balance of the two to get certain visual experiences communicated in the work. Sometimes it is like being an illusionist working to see what technical combinations can accomplish the most in the search of the illusion of solidity brought into halls, dens and homes. In a less technical sense, I find it is those days where there is just a little bit of what is to come in them that bring the most peace; a crispness in the late summer morning, the frost on the yellow grass, the small green sprouts in the frozen puddle. All fall with no winter is a lie and all winter with no green season is hopeless and all green season with no gold is like a mountain you can never summit.”
There Before Me, oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in.
Thompson adds that he likes to work big because he has more room to move the paint around, which has an added effect on the artist. “You are literally surrounded by the painting while making it,” he says. “I will say that small plein air pieces have a special place in my heart as well but probably for the same reason, you are surrounded by the experience.”
The show will hang through December 1. —
Gallery Wild 80 W. Broadway » Jackson Hole, WY 83001 » (307) 203-2322 » www.gallerywild.com
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