JOHN MCCORMICK'S ART BLOG

2011 Marin Open Studio

2011-05-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

MARIN OPEN STUDIO

My paintings will be part of the this years Marin Open Studio. The following is a sample of some of the smaller paintings I have put together for this event. I hope you can stop by. Enjoy!

Saturday and Sunday May 7th and 8th and May 14th and 15th, 2010

My studio will be open from 10 am - 6 pm

The address is 20 Fairview Ave, Corte Madera, CA 94925

Studio Phone: 415-924-1624

Cell: 415-328-2082

Directions: Tamalpais Ave, Left on Sausalito to top of hill, Left on Madrono, Left Fairview to the top of hill. Park on street, walk into cul-de-sac. Signs will be out front. Enter studio through garden gate.

October Light 12x24 oil on panel

Valley of the Moon 11x14 oil on panel

Red Tree, Hillside 12x12 oil on panel

Pt. Reyes Afternoon #1 12x24 oil on panel

January light 9x12 oil on canvas

January Farm House 9x12 oil on linen

February Light 11x 14 oil on panel

2011 Anne Loucks Gallery

2011-05-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

2011 Exhibition - Scott White Contemporary Art

2011-05-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

CALIFORNIA

CONTEMPORARY

May 13 - September 3, 2011

Opening Reception:

Friday, May 13th 6 - 8 pm

New Work 2010

2010-12-05T11:18:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

Closing out 2010 with some new work I want to share with you. I have sent four new works to the Julie Nester Gallery in Park City. Two of the paintings shown here are 60x60 and reflect movement toward a slightly lighter pallet. Additionally, I have been increasingly aware of color as a factor in my compositions and how squeezing value can help create mood and distance.

The dynamics of color use can be a daunting experience at times. For this reason I have scaled back my range of colors at different times to see what I can glean from the a limited pallet. After doing this for awhile I may find that the incremental introduction of new hues creates and alters the range of color relationships for the entire work, thereby adding more atmosphere and or brilliance.

I had the good fortune recently to view a number of works by Seurat at the DeYoung museum in San Francisco. This was part of a larger show of impressionist and post impressionist work currently on display at the museum. While Seurat's paintings demonstrate a deep analytical understanding of color and hue relationships, it is his conte or charcoal renderings on paper that present a masterful view of value and modulation of value to the viewer. In my painting entitled "Beyond the Margins" I have explored a more subtle ;use of value and tone to create mood, atmosphere and distance. The same study was explored in the painting "Near the Estero" (seen below)

Lisa Harris Gallery Exhibition

2010-12-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

In September my work was part of a two person exhibit at the Lisa Harris Gallery in Seattle. I have worked with Lisa for ten years and she presents my work well. For this show I did twelve new paintings. The work represented a slight shift in terms of color use and motif. For several years my work has focused on wetlands and intimate settings in nature. In the paintings, seen below, I have shifted to a larger more panoramic view. "Above the Valley" puts the viewer in an elevated position and suggests a strong light moving across the picture plane. The brush handling moves up the picture plane starting with a more naturalistic rendering technique in the lower third and culminating at the top of the canvas with a loose burst of light, the brush strokes in the upper third, revealing process, paint handling and a flattening of space, as opposed to image making. This in turn presents the viewer with different levels of focus and a juxtaposition of visual language.

Bolinas Mini Show 2010

2010-12-02T11:38:00.000-08:00

Opening on November 20th and running through to the New Year, the Bolinas Museum's mini show has become a must see. This venue in west Marin has been an annual favorite for over twenty years. The show features the work of several local artists. Each work is no larger than 6x6 inches. This year I submitted two small paintings. One was a study for a larger painting and the other was a new motif featuring the ever present distant hills in the area.

New Commission Paintings

2010-07-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

The two paintings featured above are both commission pieces I recently completed. Each painting is 36x72 inches. The clients were both residents of the wine country area near Napa and Sonoma California, and the paintings reflect the light and feel of the area.

Environmental Portraits

2010-07-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

David Brower, Founder of Earth First, Sierra Club

SOLO EXHIBITION MARCH 20 - MAY 1, 2010

2010-03-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

John McCormick
New Landscapes and Portraits

Thursday Morning 48 x 48 oil on linen

The painting shown above will be part of a one-man exhibition of paintings to be shown at the Elins Eagle Smith Gallery in San Francisco. This is the first one man show of my work in the Bay Area in three years and I am looking forward to the opening on Saturday March 20th from 2 to 4pm. I have been working for the past year on this new body of work and am thrilled at the prospect of finally seeing it on the walls. Included in the show will be several new landscapes and a number of portraits. Most of you may be familiar with my landscapes, but for this, my first show of the new decade, I decided to hang portraits of those people who have informed and inspired my thinking regarding the landscape and our environment. It is a project that will be ongoing, paying homage to and recognizing the efforts and contributions of everyone from Thoreau, and Muir, to David Brower and Robert Redford.

David Brower

Teddy Roosevelt

John Muir

Robert Redford

I look forward to seeing you at the reception on March 20th at the Elin Eagles Smith Gallery. The gallery is located at 49 Geary St., 5th floor in San Francisco. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or contact the gallery directly. The gallery phone number is 415-981-1080

SMALL TREASURES AT ELINS EAGLES-SMITH

2010-02-28T06:13:00.000-08:00

Small Treasures at Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery, San Francisco

February 3 – 27, 2010

John McCormick, Bolinas Lagoon, 2007

The exhibition of “small treasures” at Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery gathers together some thirty-five works in smaller format by ten gallery artists. All of the artists in this show are well-known in the Bay Area and include Jennifer Bain, Jan Gauthier, John Goodman, Wade Hoefer, Frances McCormack, John McCormick, Timothy McDowell, Tom Monaghan, Jeanne Mullen, Kenjilo Nanao, Bob Nugent, and Gustavo Ramos Rivera. Hoefer, McCormack, Nanao and Rivera have only one piece on view, but these are noteworthy, particularly McCormack’s Stems III (2010) and Rivera’s Heartbreak (2009), a small bold abstract painting of simple red, blue, yellow and black shapes balanced against one another on a red background framed in black. The shapes themselves are reminiscent of the heart and its chambers, but more evocative than these is the energetic conversation that takes place between these balanced figures, a rhythm of pure color and abstract shapes. This looks like a throwback to Abstract Expressionism, but the freshness of the images and the direct application of the paint are refreshing and particularly appealing on a smaller scale.

My favorite pieces in this exhibition, however, are two small and intimate landscapes by John McCormick, Bolinas Lagoon (2007) and Near Stinson Beach (2007), and four pastel drawings of the same high-walled, rural building in different light and bright colors by Jeanne Mullen, from her series Montalpruno (2004). For those of us who are local Bay Area residents, who know well and love the intricacies and small beauties of the landscape along the coast near Stinson Beach and the Bolinas Lagoon, McCormick’s paintings are in fact a delightful return and visit to these locales that make such a lasting impression on our memories and sensibilities. He succeeds unequivocally in capturing the “essence of place” in each of these engaging atmospheric paintings, with sepia light aglow on the waters and in the sky, the familiar trees in stately importance, the grasses and waters lighted by the high blue sky showing in the distance. These are, of course, squarely in the tradition of American, and in particular, California landscape painting, with intimate and familiar views of local landscapes, not necessarily famous and monumental, but regional and domestic, like Albert Bierstadt’s California Spring (1875) and his elegant and serene views of Yosemite, which do not glorify and idealize these natural beauties, but keep them accessible on an intimate human scale. McCormick’s technique and palette are also similar to some of Constable’s more atmospheric works, like his famous A Hayfield Near East Bergholt at Sunset (1812).

Mullen’s brightly colored pastel drawings of neat, clean-lined rural farm buildings—barns, sheds, and silos—are also variations on a theme, but the changes in color and the different effects created by brilliant color combinations on the unusual architectural shapes actually produce an endless variety of interest in the patterns and pleasures of seeing. The four pastel drawings of the same rural structure from her Montalpruno series are beautifully rendered color experimentations, whereby the same building in each drawing experiences a mood change and altered state by the different colors applied to the planes, surfaces and lines of the structure. The possibilities are nearly endless, but Mullen does not wear out her theme or viewer interest by overstatement. She aptly controls the process by the simplicity of her objects and balance of pure color shapes. In this regard, another work in this show deserves attention: Jan Gauthier’s beautifully composed portrait of another rural barn, Barn 1 (2010), a gelatin print with oil based pigment that is a rich chocolate color.

For more information:Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery

49 Geary Street #520

San Francisco, CA 94108

415.981.1080

February 3 – 27, 2010

http://www.examiner.com/x-15746-SF-Art-Books-Examiner~y2010m2d23-Small-Treasures-at-Elins-EaglesSmith-Gallery-San-Francisco

Artist Studios featured in "The Studio Book"

2009-11-22T15:52:00.000-08:00

Who wouldn't want a studio in the sun and by the sea? For those of us who have always dreamed of having a wonderful studio space, this book is a treasure of eclectic studios informed by the spirit, energy, and creativity of their owners. Featured here are thirty-six historical and contemporary studios that have emerged from a unique studio tradition. Ranging from serene, contemplative spaces to busy workshops, all provide inspiration and ideas for creative work spaces. Many of the studios shown have been designed by great architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, Charles and Ray Eames, Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, and A. Quincy Jones; and John McCormick, while we are not all able to call on the talents of such luminaries in the design of our own personal spaces, we are sure to benefit from the wonderfully creative studios here on display.

The book is photographed by Melba Levick and written by Kathleen Riquelme. It is available on Amazon.

Bolinas Museum Mini Show

2009-11-16T20:51:00.000-08:00

Teddy Roosevelt, Tree Hugger

FDR, Tree Hugger

Blue Sunset (sold)

Mid-Day (sold)

These four paintings will be in the annual Bolinas Museum Mini Show. This is the 21st year the museum has had this show, and this year over 85 artists created small works for the show. This is a wonderful Holiday benefit for the museum as fifty percent of all sales go to the museums' general fund. There will be artists' reception on Saturday, November 21st from 3-5pm. For more information call the museum at 415-868-0330

Each of the above paintings measures 6x6 inches. Along with two of my landscapes, I've included two portraits from my "Tree Hugger" series. The idea behind these paintings is to highlight and bring attention to those individuals who have been important in shaping our national consciousness with regard to the natural environment.

In this day of polarized political thought, too many people see the environmentalist movement as a recent development that began on the first earth day in 1970. Of course this event helped to calvenize people around ideas and concerns we all share regarding the health of the planet, but concern for the environment has long been part of our national character. The writings of Jefferson, Thoreau and Emerson shaped our thinking early on, and the development of our National Parks was part of an idea that continues to inspire and grow today in communities across the country.

The portrait of Teddy Roosevelt celebrates the President and the man who gave a big boost to the development of our National Park system. The portrait of FDR highlights the effort this President put forward in rebuilding the National Parks (Civilian Conservation Corps) and advancing new thought regarding land use.

I will continue to post new portraits has I finish them so stay tuned.

November 16th, 2009

New Book on Landscape Painting

2009-11-15T21:32:00.000-08:00

Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice

by Mitchell Albala

I am happy to announce the publication of Mitchell Albalas' new book, "Landscape Painting, Essential Concepts and Techniques." Mitchell is a Seattle based artist and educator whose artwork can be seen at the Lisa Harris Gallery in Seattle. My paintings are represented by Lisa Harris as well and Mitchell asked me if he could use one of my paintings in the section of the book that deals with composition. The book is instructional for all levels from beginning to advanced students and has beautiful color reproductions.

The book can be ordered on Amazon

John McCormick Landscape Book

2009-11-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

The hardcover book includes McCormick’s paintings and charcoal studies done over a period between 1995 and 2001. Essays by Susan Hillhouse, the Chief Curator of Art at The Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, California and Ron Glowen, an independent and nationally published art critic based in Seattle, Washington, add to the rich visual dialogue of McCormick’s work.

McCormick is a Bay area artist who has lived in California since 1971. He is part of a group of contemporary landscape painters who combine elements of modernism with those of traditional landscape painting. McCormick creates images from his immediate environment and from childhood memories of lakes and waterways to create works that are evocative of the mysterious and the fragile in nature. His art demonstrates a deep involvement with the craft of painting, the alchemy of rendering form, and the modulation of tone and hue.

His work is collected nationally and he is represented by galleries in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Montreal and Park City. His home and studio is in Marin County, California.

To purchase this book:

Or it can be ordered from our website under the "Prints" link at http://www.johnmccormick.com

Hardcover, 12”x9”, 128 pages

76 duotone and four color images

print run of 2000 Price $35

Bolinas Exhibition and Auction September 2009

2009-09-12T12:00:00.001-07:00

Biglin Brother in the Rills, 20" x 18" oil on panel, 2008

The Constant Movement, 16" x 20" oil on panel, 2008

Bolinas Museum Exhibition Aug 19 - September 19, 2009

The Bolinas Museum is a small but highly active regional museum located in west Marin in the coastal town of Bolinas. The community of Bolinas has a long history of dedication to the arts and artists. Writers, painters, poets and movie makers call or have called Bolinas home and the museum has functioned as a fulcrum and meeting place for those with diverse talents and interests.

This year, as in years past I will have two paintings in the Bolinas Museum Annual Auction.

"The Constant Motion" is a 16x20 landscape and "Biglin Brother in the Rills" addresses my interest in art history by placing one of Thomas Eakins familiar scullers in one of my landscapes. Both paintings will part of auction to be held on the 19th of September. The auction is open to the public and has great food and live music.

The artwork will be auctioned on Saturday, September 19, 2009 in Bolinas at Susie and Mark Buell's Barn. For more information contact the Bolinas Museum (415) 868 -0330 www.bolinasmuseum.org

West Marin Wild - Labor Day Weekend 2009

2009-09-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

Thoreau on White Owl, Oil on Vintage Cigar Box, 2008

End Game #2 oil on Cigar Box Lid, 2008

Lagoon 12" x 24" oil on panel, 2008

West Marin Wild

The above paintings were part of a Labor day weekend exhibit entitled "West Marin Wild".

This exhibit was organized a few years ago by friend Anne Baxter and is put together every other year around Labor Day. The exhibition includes about 35 local artists whose work collectively represents concerns about our environment, specifically west Marin county.

The opening and exhibit takes place at the Red Barn near Bear Valley in Pt. Reyes and is wonderful opportunity for community to gather eat some good food, listen to some good music,view and purchase some beautiful artwork.

The paintings "Thoreau on White Owl" is part of a series of portraits I have been painting. The paintings reflect my concerns for the environment, but also try to address that part of our American character that found its voice in the work of Thoreau, Emerson and many of the nature poets. I will be posting these portraits as an ongoing series.

45 Fremont Street, Lobby, San Francisco, CA

2009-09-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

The Silence Within 60" x 96" oil on linen 2006

Beyond the Margins #1 48" x 60" oil on linen 2008

Red Tree 60" x 60" Oil on linen, 2006

Beyond the Margins #2 60" x 60" oil on linen 2009

The above paintings will be on display in the Lobby of 45 Fremont St. in San Francisco from August 29 - October 24, 2009. This exhibition was put together by Cathy Baum, an art consultant I have worked with for years, thanks Cathy. If you are in downtown San Francisco, stop by and view these larger works.

Cliff Lede Vineyards Exhibition

2009-09-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Where Water Comes Together with Other Water #2
oil on linen, 2008

Light on the Edge 30" x 30" oil on linen 2006

Morning Trees 48" x 48" oil on linen 2009

Cliff Lede Vineyards Exhibition

The Cliff Lede Vineyards is located in the beautiful Napa Valley and is proud of their on sight exhibition space. The paintings above will be part of a group exhibition curated by the Scott White Contemporary Art. The exhibition will be up October through the first of the year. This is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the wine country in the fall and see some great art.

New Commissioned painting for St. Regis Hotel

2009-08-16T19:34:00.001-07:00

The above painting entitled "Blue Penumbra #2" was recently installed in the St. Regis hotel in Park City Utah. The painting was part of group of excellent pieces that were purchased by the St. Regis from the Julie Nester Gallery.

The gallery has represented my work in the area for the past four years and is a must for visitors and locals alike, especially during the annual Sundance Film Festival.

The painting entitled "Blue Penumbra #2" is oil on panel and is 40"x 80" The painting will be hung promintly in the lobby of the new hotel and will be part of a book being published by the St. Regis. The book will include much of the art purchased by the new hotel as part of their ongoing collection.

Abstract paintings

2009-05-04T21:36:00.000-07:00

I have had many requests over the years for paper editions of my earlier abstract work. I am currently working with S.F. Electric Works (formerly Trillium Press) to produce limited editions of some of my abstract work.

Abstract prints are available on my website at www.johnmccormick.com