The Golden Hour - Venezia

 

Gregg Chadwick

The Golden Hour - Venezia

30"x24" oil on linen 2023

Do you cherish a city or place that takes your breath away? For me, Venice, Italy has been a world of wonder since I first visited. My oil on linen painting "The Golden Hour" was inspired by my time over the years in the magical city of Venice. Poised between sea and land, Venice is a place where light, shade, color, and reflection merge and recombine in a watery environment. In this mirrored world, past and present seem to coexist.History's shadows slide in and out of darkened alleys.

The color and light found in the artworks of the Venetian painters Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Tiepolo, seen up close in the city of their creation, have been revelatory for me.

Their works glow like light upon water. This effect of reflected, sparkling light bouncing off canals, is called gibigiane in Venetian dialect. The liquid nature of transparent oils glowing from within, as if light lived within the pigment, captures me. I continue to study and adapt Venetian painting techniques in my paintings.

See this painting and more in my studio at Art at the Airport on September 30, 2023 from 5-9pm.

Kindly RSVP in advance:

https://artattheairport.eventbrite.com

Art At The Airport is made possible by Art of Recovery, an initiative of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, santamonica.gov/arts/artofrecovery.

To learn about upcoming Art At The Airport events, visit: https://www.artattheairport.org/

Strengthening the Arts Community – Gregg Chadwick

I am honored to be a Fellow in The Clark Hulings Fund’s 2017 Business Accelerator Program which just posted a podcast with me - We cover a lot of ground and discuss some timely topics. Hope you enjoy it! Link Here:  https://clarkhulingsfund.org/strengthening-arts-community-gregg-chadwick/   Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe to the Thriving Artist Podcast: iTunes | Android | RSS Gregg Chadwick is a Santa Monica–based artist who has been painting for three decades, and his work has been exhibited in national and international galleries, art fairs, and museums. He’s given many lectures on the arts, including speaking engagements at UCLA and Categorically Not—a forum that examines the intersection of art and science. Art and social justice: “All art has a political stance whether it’s on the surface or boiling underneath.” “Every day something new happens in the world and art is really primed to look at those global changes and shifts.” “The history of oil paintings is so deep that it allows artists to address issues with a very subtle touch.” Developing a virtual network: “If you’re in your studio by yourself, people aren’t going to come looking for you. If you’re on social media, you’re communicating globally, and there are things that can only happen in that forum.” “I’ve had a number of people contact me over the years looking for particular paintings that I’ve shown online, even if they were previous works on older platforms like Flickr.” Social media translates to sales: “Art dealers are on Twitter, and I like to create subject matter that, when it’s Googled, my name comes up.” “Social media allows you to sow the seeds of your work and who you are. People want to get to know you a little bit, who the artist is—it’s not just a product.” “The collectors who want to be connected to the artists are able to do that. That community and camaraderie is there. It makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something significant, and it drives me to keep going, to keep my audience happy.” CHF’s Accelerator and artist forums: “The difficult thing is putting thoughts into numbers, having an organized system that you’re continually using to propel your business from one level to another.” “The encouragement and enthusiasm from the [Accelerator] program and other Fellows has led us to have bigger dreams and bigger ideas that we now know can come to fruition.” “This is a group of like-minded individuals in which we can talk about our work and challenges together.”

Update from May's Venice Art Walk & Auctions at Frank Gehry's Google building.  I just learned from the Venice Family Clinic - "that with the collective efforts of our participating artists, we raised more than $780,000 ($50k more than last year). We are pleased to announce that this is the most successful Venice Art Walk that we had in over a decade! “ Photo:  The Talented Actress Robin Tunney ( The Mentalist / Prison Break) with my painting "Museum Whispers (de Young)” Thank you for your interest in my work and for all that you do to make the world a better place, Gregg Chadwick www.greggchadwick.com http://www.artspace.com/gregg-chadwick https://shopvida.com/collections/greggchadwick

Robin Tunney and Museum Whispers

A photo memento from May's Venice Art Walk & Auctions at Frank Gehry's Google building. The Talented Actress Robin Tunney ( The Mentalist / Prison Break) with my painting "Museum Whispers (de Young)" 


I just learned from the Venice Family Clinic - "that with the collective efforts of our participating artists, we raised more than $780,000 ($50k more than last year). We are pleased to announce that this is the most successful Venice Art Walk that we had in over a decade! "

City of Angels Benefits Venice Family Clinic

Gregg Chadwick

City of Angels

17”x17” oil on linen 2014

Benefit Auction for Venice Family Clinic

My painting, City of Angels, will be available at the 2016 Benefit Auction for the Venice Family Clinic on Sunday, May 22, 2016. The annual event, now in its 37th year, will again be held at Google Los Angeles in the Frank Gehry designed Binoculars Building. City of Angels will be featured for pre-bidding on the auction site Paddle 8 with a select group of donated artworks. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of my painting help fund the Venice Family Clinic’s comprehensive health care program for the low-income and uninsured.

For Alex Eliot on his Passing - "Oriste!"

“Life is a fatal adventure. It can only have one end. So why not make it as far-ranging and free as possible?” Alexander Eliot

I received the sad news yesterday that my dear friend, art writer and mythologist, Alex Eliot passed away. Born April 28, 1919, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Alex would have turned 97 this week. Alex was the art editor at Time Magazine from 1945 until 1960. During those years Alex crafted numerous articles about the modern art scene. Alex always held us spellbound with tales of meeting the major artists of the period. Alex especially loved to tell the story of meeting Salvador Dali in New York and that Dali became a close friend because Jane Winslow, Eliot’s wife, had lived in Catalonia and spoke Dali’s native Catalan fluently. 

For his 90th birthday, Alex's talented daughter, the writer Winslow Eliot, asked me to craft an appreciation of Alex. I have revamped this essay a bit to reflect on his passing:

In Alex Eliot's marvelous essay in Frederick Franck's book, What Does it Mean to be Human?, Alex recounts his journey to the Greek region of Karoulia and his encounter with the "very holy fellow" Simon. Like many of his fellow Orthodox monks from Mount Athos, Simon retired to a cliff side residence in Karoulia. Perched high above the water, these monks spend their later years in solitude with the meeting of the sea and sky as their constant companion.

Alex was invited by a fisherman from Mount Athos, who spoke of Simon as a holy fellow, to make the journey with him by sea to visit the monk. With the fisherman's boat bobbing in the waves below, Alex climbed a series of steps carved into the rock face with only a series of chains spiked into the cliff to hold onto. The fisherman had said, "If those chains will hold you, it is as God wills" for Alex to meet with Simon. At the end of his climb, Alex explains that he lay drenched in sweat, gasping like a beached fish until he felt a cool shadow break the heat and there was Simon, "sparkling eyed" with his arms spread wide, exclaiming "Oriste!" meaning "Welcome, what can I do for you!"



Forgive me if I break Alex's engaging narrative at this point. As I write these words, I am sitting in my studio surrounded by a series of new paintings inspired by a recent trip with my family to Japan. The siren of these images is calling me. And I can't help but wonder what Alex and Jane Eliot, who also traveled with their family to Japan, will think of this new work. I don't have to risk my life scaling a cliff to reach the Eliots. I just need to make my pilgrimage out my studio door and down Ocean Park Boulevard, Diebenkorn's old haunts, to Venice, California to visit this couple who always greet my friends and family with wide open arms and profound insights. Like Simon's greeting, Alex Eliot's welcoming words nourish and inspire me.

Alex Eliot and Gregg Chadwick at the Getty Museum Malibu

Alex Eliot turned 90 on April 28, 2009. In his fruitful life, Alex met with and wrote about the great artists of his age, including Picasso and Matisse. One might think it would only be natural for a man of such wisdom and experience to be a bit haughty. Instead, Alex shares the old monk Simon's gentle and generous spirit as well as his great wisdom and love for life.

While on that cliff in Karoulia, Simon offered Alex a piece of caramel candy. Alex, graciously accepted the gift and then when the monk was preoccupied, Alex, feeling that the seemingly undernourished monk needed all the calories he could get, slipped it under Simon's plate. Alex then bowed and scooted out to climb down the cliff to the boat waiting below. The sun was setting when Alex reached the fisherman who lay asleep in the boat. The sirens called. Alex disrobed and dove into the sea only to be startled by a basket hurtling down the old monk's supply cable which linked his aerie to the world. In the basket was the caramel. "My candy had come back! I put the caramel straight into my mouth and like a child once more I tasted its burnt sugar elixir right down to my toes."

And then Alex opens up to the mythosphere - "Never before in this life, possibly, had my poor spirit taken nourishment. I stood dripping upon the shore of time and Simon waved to me from eternity."

Like Simon's candy, Alex Eliot's friendship gives my poor spirit nourishment.

Let me break again from my essay to speak directly to Alex:

Alex, I thank you for your wisdom, your profound words and feelings, the inspired love that you show to your wife - Jane - and your talented children. Alex - you are a lifeline, an example, and a challenge. I am proud to be your friend. 

Gregg Chadwick

Study for a Portrait of Alex Eliot 

8"x13" oil on wood 2009

Throughout my years as I stand with my wife, MarySue, and my kid, Cassiel, on the shore of time I will see Alex and Jane Eliot waving to me from eternity and exclaiming, "Oriste!"

Alex and Jane Eliot
photo courtesy Winslow Eliot

More at:
Alex Eliot's Website
Jane Winslow Eliot's Website

A Painted Journey Down the Grand Canal

Canaletto's The Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola, painted around 1738, provides the viewer a gondola ride down Venice's Grand Canal. Compare the 18-century city to the way it looks today in this video produced by the Getty Museum in honor of the painting's recent acquisition.

Music: Antonio Vivaldi: Oboe Concerto in C major (RV 447), Advent Chamber Orchestra. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Barcarole

Gregg Chadwick
Barcarole
14"x14" oil on linen 2012

The Venetian Night

Gregg Chadwick

La Notte

14"x11" oil on linen 2012

La Notte, my latest painting, was begun shortly after I returned from my latest excursion to Venice, Italy. Venice, poised between sea and land, is a place where light, shade, color, and reflection merge and recombine in the city's watery environment. In this mirrored world, past and present seem to coexist. History’s shadows slide in and out of darkened alleys and slip along narrow canals.


The color and light found in the artworks of the Venetian painters Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Tiepolo, seen up close in the city of their creation, is always revelatory. These artist's artworks glow like light upon water. This effect of reflected, sparkling light bouncing off canals, is called gibigiane in Venetian dialect. The liquid nature of transparent oils glowing from within, as if light lived within the pigment, seems to fix this quixotic glow onto canvas.

Meditations on a Wave on the Day of the Venice Art Walk: May 22, 2011

by Gregg Chadwick


Gregg Chadwick
Study for Kamakura
14"x11" oil on linen 2011

"The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty."
- Kenko, from Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa), circa 1330

I am always honored to support the Venice Family Clinic with my art. My donation this year reflects my interests in Southern California and Japan with Study for Kamakura. Kamakura is both a beach town and a center of Japanese culture. In my painting, grey beach haze seems to mask the distance between east and west.

Kamakura is home to the great statue of Buddha, the Daibutsu, pictured on countless postcards and books on Japan. Two years ago, I finally made my pilgimage to Kamakura and stood in awe beneath the great statue. A great wave washed away the building housing the Daibutsu in the 15th century. Since that time the statue has been seated in meditation beneath the sun and the stars. After surviving great tsunamis and political upheavals, the Daibutsu provides perspective on humanity's rush for wealth and power. Beneath the ancient bronze statue, I felt the past speaking to me. If we stop and listen, we can hear our long gone friends speaking to us through words, colors, and forms.

The 14th Century Japanese poet and monk, Kenko, wrote, "The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under the lamp, a book spread out before you, and to make friends with people of a distant past you have never known." Lance Morrow's essay in the June 2011 issue of Smithsonian magazine considers Kenko's thoughts. Morrow explains "In a time of traumatic change, some writers or artists or composers may withdraw from the world in order to compose their own universe—Prospero’s island." When artists withdraw into their studios to create, they are not alone. With them, breathing soundless encouragement, are the voices of the past.


Gregg Chadwick
Kamakura (Daibutsu)
36"x48" oil on linen 2010
Private Collection, Los Angeles

“Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth.”
- Kenko, from Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa), circa 1330


Portrait of Kenko, Buddhist monk and poet,
by Kikuchi Yosai（菊池容斎）


Details on the Venice Art Walk Below:

Now in its 32nd year, the Venice Art Walk & Auctions has raised millions of dollars for Venice Family Clinic – largely through the Silent Art Auction, which offers great deals on original and limited-edition works by the biggest names in the Southern California art scene.

Hope to see you at Westminster School, 1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, for the Studio Tour, the Silent Art Auction, the Select Auction, the Art Within Reach pop-up store, the Artful Living auction, the Food Fair, live music, and the separately ticketed Art & Architecture Tour of Water and Tree-Lined Streets of Venice. Don’t forget there’s free parking and shuttle service from two nearby lots.

By the way, online sales are now closed, but you can purchase tickets at the event.

Thank you very much for supporting Venice Family Clinic and its mission of providing free, quality health care to people in need. It’s going to be a great day.

Map to the Venice Art Walk:
Venice Art Walk



More at:
The Timeless Wisdom of Kenko
Venice Art Walk 2011



Great Buddha at Kamakura
photo by Gregg Chadwick

Live Art Webcast: Sol LeWitt Installation at L.A. Louver Gallery

A new exhibit of Sol LeWitt's artwork is currently being installed at the L.A. Louver Gallery in Venice, California. The opening reception is on January 20, 2010. For those interested in artistic process the gallery is streaming a live video of four L.A. artists, working with Gabriel Hurier from the Sol LeWitt estate, as they create the work onsite.

Streaming Webcast of Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings installation in progress

for Alex Eliot on his 90th Birthday - "Oriste!"

In Alex Eliot's marvelous essay in Frederick Franck's book, What Does it Mean to be Human?, Alex recounts his journey to the Greek region of Karoulia and his encounter with the "very holy fellow" Simon. Like many of his fellow Orthodox monks from Mount Athos, Simon retired to a cliff side residence in Karoulia. Perched high above the water, these monks spend their later years in solitude with the meeting of the sea and sky as their constant companion.

Alex was invited by a fisherman from Mount Athos, who spoke of Simon as a holy fellow, to make the journey with him by sea to visit the monk. With the fisherman's boat bobbing in the waves below, Alex climbed a series of steps carved into the rock face with only a series of chains spiked into the cliff to hold onto. The fisherman had said, "If those chains will hold you, it is as God wills" for Alex to meet with Simon. At the end of his climb, Alex explains that he lay drenched in sweat gasping like a beached fish until he felt a cool shadow break the heat and there was Simon, "sparkling eyed" with his arms spread wide, exclaiming "Oriste!" meaning "Welcome, what can I do for you!"



Forgive me if I break Alex's engaging narrative at this point. As I write these words, I am sitting in my studio surrounded by a series of new paintings inspired by a recent trip with my family to Japan. The siren of these images is calling me. And I can't help but wonder what Alex and Jane Eliot, who also traveled with their family to Japan, will think of this new work. I don't have to risk my life scaling a cliff to reach the Eliots. I just need to make my pilgrimage out my studio door and down Ocean Park Boulevard, Diebenkorn's old haunts, to Venice, California to visit this couple who always greet my friends and family with wide open arms and profound insights. Like Simon's greeting, Alex Eliot's welcoming words nourish and inspire me.


Gregg Chadwick's Studio with 13 Geisha (13芸者) - in progress

Alex Eliot will turn 90 on April 28, 2009. In his fruitful life, Alex has met with and written about the great artists of his age - Picasso and Matisse. One might think it would only be natural for a man of such wisdom and experience to be a bit haughty. Instead Alex shares the old monk Simon's gentle and generous spirit as well as his great wisdom and love for life.

While on that cliff in Karoulia, Simon offered Alex a piece of caramel candy. Alex, graciously accepted the gift and then when the monk was preoccupied, Alex, feeling that the seemingly undernourished monk needed all the calories he could get, slipped it under Simon's plate. Alex then bowed and scooted out to climb down the cliff to the boat waiting below. The sun was setting when Alex reached the fisherman who lay asleep in the boat. The sirens called. Alex disrobed and dove into the sea only to be startled by a basket hurtling down the old monk's supply cable which linked his aerie to the world. In the basket was the caramel. "My candy had come back! I put the caramel straight into my mouth and like a child once more I tasted its burnt sugar elixir right down to my toes."

And then Alex opens up to the mythosphere - "Never before in this life, possibly, had my poor spirit taken nourishment. I stood dripping upon the shore of time and Simon waved to me from eternity."

Like Simon's candy, Alex Eliot's friendship gives my poor spirit nourishment.

Let me break again from my essay to speak directly to Alex:

Alex, I thank you for your wisdom, your profound words and feelings, the inspired love that you show to your wife - Jane - and your talented children. Alex - you are a lifeline, an example, and a challenge. I am proud to be your friend.


Study for a Portrait of Alex Eliot
8"x13" oil on wood 2009

Throughout my years as I stand with my wife, MarySue, and my son, Cassiel, on the shore of time I will see Alex and Jane Eliot waving to me from eternity and exclaiming, "Oriste!"


More at:
Alex Eliot's Website
Jane Winslow Eliot's Website

Lucian Freud in Venice

Update: May 2008 -Painter and Model: Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping Sells for $33.64 Million

Both Franklin and Todd pay homage to the Lucian Freud article in the London Times .

Lucian Freud

"The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer"

54"x42" oil on canvas 2005

This painting will be the most recent work in a a retrospective exhibition, curated by William Feaver, on show this summer at Venice's Museo Correr (12 June-30 October 2005). The exhibition is organised by the Venetian Civic Museums on the occasion of the 2005 Venice Biennale.