George Kernan has been an exhibiting artist for over 40 years and made his home in Ridgway, Colorado since 1995
.
"After painting in oils on canvas since 1965, I wondered what it would be like to work with mixed media. In the early 1980's I also began to work in clay, painting with glazes on vessels, sculpted pieces and flat surfaces. I kiln-fired the work, applying the ancient Japanese technique of Raku. For a period of time this was very challenging and rewarding, teaching me strong discipline techniques.
In 1993, I traveled around Southwest Colorado and was so captured by its beauty, I purchased some property, built a house and studio and left my native California (San Francisco Bay Area) and moved to Ridgway, Colorado.
Viewing Colorado from border to border, I experience many emotions, fear and joy of its awesome mountains, roads that drop for 10,000 feet, rivers, meadows, flowers and lakes. An indescribable exhilaration takes had of me and I express it with long, powerful strokes of my brush, which go from the mountains and crash into the valleys. And with a soft brush stroke, I capture the stillness of its lakes, their reflections and calmness...the Colorado color of its autumn, spring green valleys and snow-capped winter mountains.
I sketch and take notes of the local area and then return to the studio where the drawings are transferred to canvas. When I begin to paint, I can feel the energy as the brush moves around the canvas. It is as if I am drawn into the paintings, pulled into by its stimulating colors. A stroke, then a slash, then another long stroke until the canvas is filled. Then I stand back and really look at the painting for the first time. A few remaining strokes here and there and I'm finished.
What is this urge to artists have to express or create? Whether it's dancing, sculpting, photography, inventing...whatever this urge, one needs to do it and disappear into the unknown. As every artist knows, creating can be a series of highs and lows depending on the outcome. Translating one's experiences and feelings into the work can be joyful but also, at times, a struggle. With my painting, I hope to visually transmit some of the emotions I experience and share them with others."
.
"After painting in oils on canvas since 1965, I wondered what it would be like to work with mixed media. In the early 1980's I also began to work in clay, painting with glazes on vessels, sculpted pieces and flat surfaces. I kiln-fired the work, applying the ancient Japanese technique of Raku. For a period of time this was very challenging and rewarding, teaching me strong discipline techniques.
In 1993, I traveled around Southwest Colorado and was so captured by its beauty, I purchased some property, built a house and studio and left my native California (San Francisco Bay Area) and moved to Ridgway, Colorado.
Viewing Colorado from border to border, I experience many emotions, fear and joy of its awesome mountains, roads that drop for 10,000 feet, rivers, meadows, flowers and lakes. An indescribable exhilaration takes had of me and I express it with long, powerful strokes of my brush, which go from the mountains and crash into the valleys. And with a soft brush stroke, I capture the stillness of its lakes, their reflections and calmness...the Colorado color of its autumn, spring green valleys and snow-capped winter mountains.
I sketch and take notes of the local area and then return to the studio where the drawings are transferred to canvas. When I begin to paint, I can feel the energy as the brush moves around the canvas. It is as if I am drawn into the paintings, pulled into by its stimulating colors. A stroke, then a slash, then another long stroke until the canvas is filled. Then I stand back and really look at the painting for the first time. A few remaining strokes here and there and I'm finished.
What is this urge to artists have to express or create? Whether it's dancing, sculpting, photography, inventing...whatever this urge, one needs to do it and disappear into the unknown. As every artist knows, creating can be a series of highs and lows depending on the outcome. Translating one's experiences and feelings into the work can be joyful but also, at times, a struggle. With my painting, I hope to visually transmit some of the emotions I experience and share them with others."
