Speed of Life

  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...

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 an...

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! "

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.

“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 pass...

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

Gregg Chadwick Barcarole 14"x14" oil on linen 2012

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.

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 pers...

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

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 be...

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.