 Venissage and Meet the artist Robert Allan at Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery in Bellevue, Wednesday November 13, 2013 6-8pm.Robert Allan is a Nebraska based artist who was born and raised in the Midwest. It was his surroundings in the Midwest that are a visible influence in his fearless fusion of industrial materials and his strong earthen tones of his color palette.
To date, his resume reads: Merchant seaman, longshoreman, truck driver, photographer for the US Army, art director, filmmaker, art teacher and pastor. Most recently, Allen has been an art teacher in the State of Washington before retiring to Nebraska. Due to a recent, but since resolved battle with blindness, Allan had a renewed appreciation for his natural talent in the visual arts. His weakened eyesight, rather than being a burden to the artist, it serendipitously contributed to the unique, abstracted way in which he views and depicts the world. Allan’s work exudes physicality. He alternatively excavates and constructs forms to create a complex topography across the surfaces of his works that effectively project light and shadow. His confident and of the surprising combinations of various material, textures, patterns, shapes and colors are reflective of his own fascination multi-layered biography.
“The tour of creation…
“My paintings begin with a foundational idea. I apply shapes, some texture and color allowing the painting to take its own reins and begin to lead as it changes my ideas in the process of creation
I’m always amazed at how the painting begins to change before my eyes as the shapes, textures and colors morph into a different composition that is literally birthed by the creative experience.
I guess what I’m saying is that the painting takes on a life of its own. I must climb aboard the process as the painting takes me on a tour—a tour that I will always embrace with excitement.” Bob Allan~
According to Allan, creativity is like a puzzle, the solutions to which fall secondary to the means to get there. In his own words, “The act of creativity is much more important than the finished work” This drives him to believe that many of his paintings are never finished, but rather simply await another design intervention or until the definitive finished point of being purchased by a collector to adorn their wall.
Director’s Note: Bob Allan has become one of our gallery’s favorite artists and continues to supply us with new, inventive and always exciting work that is worthy of any collection. I would encourage anyone interested in fresh and interesting abstract work to come out and visit this exhibition. As always, we appreciate your support.
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| Charlie BarrDon’t miss out on remaining works by Charlie Barr as we head into winter with some wonderful northwest landscapes.
Charlie Barr is a Northwest landscape artist working with a unique mixed media blend of acrylic and cement on panel. These contemporary landscape paintings are meant to set a mood or evoke emotion and often leave the viewer with a sense of remembrance and stimulated senses. Barr’s goal is to create paintings ranging from representational to abstract with a focus on color, contrast, and balance. He doesn’t want the quality of the painting to diminish whether viewed from ten feet or eight inches and believes it is crucial to use texture and creative brush techniques to hold a viewers attention up close and have a strong composition to hold the viewers interest at a greater distance. Every inch of the painted surface has movement without sacrificing the overall composition.
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