Two new clock paintings at the George Billis Gallery in Connecticut — 10:10, No.16 & 10:10, No.19. Silver & Gold.
August, ugh — consistently the most challenging month for me to focus on work. To sit and paint all day long doesn’t work for me in August. The sun is at the wrong angle, making the studio’s light so harsh and brutal. Like so many other parts of the world, the days in my area are hot and dry. So dry. The entire region looks haggard and worn out, tired from the long hot summer days coming to an end.
I focus on preparing canvas for a burst of creative activity in the fall; when the light changes, the temperature cools down, and clouds return to the sky, diffusing the light, making the shadows softer and calmer.
Here are two new paintings, shown on the easel, that the George Billis Gallery will have at Art Market Hamptons on the east coast, which runs from August 11–14, 2022.
Ampro Projector & Case / 40 x 30 inches / oil on canvas / 2022 / on the easel
The galleries keep me busy with exhibitions and several fairs throughout the year. I am already set to work for the upcoming fall fairs.
Globe / 40 x 30 inches / oil on canvas / 2022 / on the easel
I just completed this piece for the upcoming Seattle Art Fair, where the George Billis Gallery will showcase this and some other paintings. The fair runs from July 21—24.
Red Royal De Luxe / 36 x 30 inches / oil on canvas / 2022
A fellow painter reached out to me and told me they had this fantastic classic typewriter — I have the same model but in blue. So I jumped at the chance to paint a red one.
And now I have to set to work on new paintings for an art fair on the other side of the continent — The Hamptons art fair, which runs from August 11—14.
I am happy to share the news that I will be exhibiting some new paintings in New York City — the paintings go up from May 24 to June 11, 2022. The George Billis Gallery has a space at The High Line Nine Gallery at 507 West 27th Street for the summer.
If you are familiar with my work and have been following the progress for some time, you’ll see a new direction in some of the paintings. It would be about 14 or 15 years ago that I painted in “black” — and I have to say that I find it refreshing to take my favourite subjects and breath new life into them.
New Work / George Billis Gallery NYC / May 24 – June 11, 2022
My exhibition in Los Angeles is done and I have run through the full cycle of emotions after completing a large body of work and exhibiting and promoting it. I have found over the years, that the best way to battle the expectations and anti-climactic feelings is to just jump right back into making new paintings. So that’s what I am doing. I just put the finishing touch on a dozen clocks, shown here, and now I’m on to the next piece.
My great-grandmother, whom I was close with growing up, was born on a farm in Poland in 1904. When she was ten years old, she and her family became shrouded in the brutality of World War I. The farm they lived and worked on became the stage of the Eastern Front. As a child, she was an eyewitness to the horrors of The Great War. We heard snippets of what they had to do to survive, but it was difficult for her to talk about the war. It was as awful as you could imagine.
She left Poland with her own young family in 1934, just after the Nazis came to power and just before World War II. The rest of her life was lived in peace in Canada.
She died in 2000, at age 96. I always thought about the scope of her life, about the profound changes the world went through over the near-century she was here. And now I am left wondering how she would think of the current situation.
I collect these vintage and antique books that I use in my paintings. This particular piece has a Victorian-era philosophy text long side classic Penguin paperbacks.
The ideas and stories in these books are not old, useless and out of date. Instead, it would seem that everything old is new again and in the wrong way — as evidenced in yet another terrifying war in Eastern Europe.
We Have Read This Story Before / 16 x 12 inches / oil on canvas / 2021 / on the easel
Tell Me a True Story / 24 x 30 inches / oil on canvas / 2022 / on the easel
Tell Me a True Story / 24 x 30 inches / oil on canvas / 2022
These two paintings are being installed on the gallery walls in Los Angeles today. The exhibition will run from February 26 to April 2, 2022.
My last exhibition in Los Angeles was exactly two years ago. So much has happened in these two years it’s almost hard to wrap one’s head around. I am left wondering what the next two years will bring.
A World on the Wane / 24 x 30 inches / oil on canvas / 2022 / on the easel
A World on the Wane / 24 x 30 inches / oil on canvas / 2022
I find myself wondering if I should start painting traditional still life subjects, like fruit, because these clocks are complicated.
Here are two recent paintings shown framed and ready for the gallery wall. I have been represented by the George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles for just over a decade now and have had enough exhibitions with them for the number of paintings and times I’ve been there to become a blur.
I can remember the dream of having a gallery show my work in Los Angeles. I worked hard enough, and it came true.
Shown here are two paintings — The Interpretation of Dreams and 10:10, No.9 — which will be installed at the gallery on February 26 and showing through April 2, 2022.
Recently, an art consultant asked his numerous artist followers on social media why they think some artists succeed and others do not. Hundreds of answers poured in, and as I scrolled through them, one thing became so apparent; artists suffer from severe status anxiety.
Trophy / 16 x 12 inches / oil on canvas / 2021 / framed
There is an intense amount of competition in the art world. But to succeed, according to many, means that you have been blessed in all ways except the actual art-making. Apparently, one must possess many or all of specific characteristics such as; a naturally charismatic personality, very wealthy parents, easy access to top universities where your sex appeal and persuasion garnered you top grades and attention, to have been born in Manhattan and live there rent-free, etc., etc. You get the picture.
The consultant kept responding by asking these jaded artists the same question over and over; “what about the art? doesn’t the art they make have anything to do with their success?”
1st, 2nd, 3rd / 16 x 20 inches / oil on canvas / 2021 / framed
I think it is only natural to have these competition struggles, but I was surprised at how superficial and odd it seemed once you can see so many brief and desperate answers all in one place, like looking at the data from a survey. It was a reality check — no need to wallow in self-pity and jealousy. That is your biggest setback.
The art one makes is the most important thing. It is its own reward.
