We’ll Never Turn You Away
11 x 14 in., oil
Mexico and the Rio Grande River as seen from the bluffs of Boquillas Canyon, Big Bend National Park, Texas
Yeah, I know when I’m out there painting I’m supposed to be thinking about color, and comparing brush strokes, things like that, but sometimes you can’t help thinking about what you are looking at.
I arrived early along the Rio Grand and saw this little canoe, which a local used to cross the river and set up a little makeshift stand to sell handmade items to the tourists. I thought it great, and the most of the folks loved it, there was a gal who thought they ought to not be allowed, but that’s another story.
I don’t listen to music as I’m painting outdoors, but that doesn’t keep it from streaming through my head, and into it came songs about ferries and in particular “Ferry Cross the Mercy” by Gerry and the Pacemakers. Great little tune and I thought it so fitting here.
Made me think of those words on our Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island…
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
We are a land of immigrants, and that is not a bad thing. I love variety in my art, the meals, and people. It keeps life interesting.
“We go outdoors to enjoy the land, or stay inside to avoid it. It is I, an outdoor artist that brings the outside in.”
Born in the Flint Hills, Gregory Summers began his professional career at Hallmark Cards, Inc. A Master Engraver, he now paints primarily “en plein air” across the globe with a limited palette of only 4 colors. Former Vice President of the Greater Kansas City Artists Association, co-founder of the Missouri Valley Impressionist Society, and Brush Creek Plein Air painting competition in Kansas City, Missouri.
Summers is a Signature member of the American Impressionists Society, and the Outdoor Painter Society.
“I am inspired by creation and driven by the experience. I paint the land that I claim to be a part of. It is not to replicate the scene before me, more to bring back a piece of what took me there in the first place.”
2018 Events
Four Arts Sake, group show, Tim Murphy Gallery, Shawnee Msn, KS
American Impressionist Society, Small Works exhibit. Cincinnati, OH
Inaugural Paint St Louis Plein Air, St Louis, MO
Heartland Artist Exhibition, Merriam, KS
OPS Southwest Salon, Rockport, TX
En Plein Air Texas, San Angelo, TX
Augusta Plein Air Festival, Augusta, MO
Plein Air Richmond, Richmond, VA
Juror: Blue Ridge Mountain Plein Air, Blue Ridge, GA
Juror: Escalante Canyon Plein Air, Escalante, UT
2018 Workshops
Big Bend National Park, Terlingua, TX
Lake of the Ozarks, Camdenton, MO
Genessee Country Village, Mumford, NY
Tennessee Valley, Murfreesboro, TN
Blue Ridge Mountain Plein Air, Blue Ridge, GA
Escalante Canyon Plein Air, Escalante, UT
Saugatuck/Douglas, MI
San Angelo, TX
Galleries
Folger Gallery, Midland, TX
Cathy Kline Gallery, Parkville, MO
Mr Miller’s Art Emporium, Saugatuck/Douglas, MI
Rockfish Gallery, Council Grove, KS
Leawood Fine Arts, Leawood, KS
View more of Greg’s work at www.rgregorysummers.com.
