“Memento Flore”
oil on canvas
70 x 70 in.
Embodying Myth Through Imagination: New Portraits and Figures By Brad Overton
Exhibition Preview through June 18, 2016
Blue Rain Gallery
Railyard location, 544 Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501
In my search for meaning and joy in life I have become a painter. I have found both there. But really, it is where I have found all of life. In the creative act I have continuously cycled through the struggles and rewards that are the common experience, everyday. There are moments of quiet, peaceful meditation and freedom from anxiety as I paint in the deep flow, for hours at at time. I go under the spell and forget to even drink water. And there are other days when doubt grips me and the brush and I can’t get it back. And I can’t get back.
Mostly though the days are on my side. Either way I don’t resist the experience. It’s the way it is
My paintings are all realistic. The ideas I think of show up that way so that’s how I paint. All of my dreams are in realism. The whole world, in fact looks pretty realistic to me. So I’m interested in that. I’m interested in the choices I can make, the inventory or “visual vocabulary” I can build which is unique to me, but accessible to those I come into contact with through my paintings. At times I choose subjects or arrangements because they are funny, which is essential and miraculous. Other paintings are meant to host the sublime, which is the undercurrent of our world; it’s origin and mystery. Other paintings are meant to remind the viewer of an aspect or attribute to lay claim to. But the common thread is that they are meant to serve the viewer. I paint paintings that I want to see, that I can’t wait to paint. I simply trust my own interest and fast expecting others to come along.
Brad Overton, 2013
Featured Artwork: Brad Overton
