Principle Gallery (Alexandria, Virginia), is presenting “Proximate,” a contemporary realism show featuring works by Gavin Glakas and Steven S. Walker, through March 23, 2026 (opening reception February 27).
Here, Gavin Glakas takes us behind the scenes of what it’s like to prepare for such a show with an ambitious goal of creating 12 new paintings on a time budget.
Scheduling Creativity in a Busy Life
By Gavin Glakas
I’ve never been so methodical about creativity, but I just had so little time. Principle Gallery’s Director asked me last March if I could have 12 paintings for a joint show with my friend Steven Walker this February, but I knew I couldn’t begin them until November.
If the stars aligned, I might have time to finish the 12th painting on the day of the opening, like I did for my last show.
However, I wouldn’t have time to be creative while painting. I wouldn’t have time to come up with ideas and follow my process if I was working day and night to finish 12 paintings.
My process – in optimal working conditions – means generating ideas, letting them marinate and then doing any number of plein air studies if I’m planning to do the painting in the studio.
I’m a full-time artist with two kids, so I have very little time to myself when I’m not painting. And that alone time is when the ideas come and evolve.
This process has fallen by the wayside lately and I decided I had to do it right this time, which meant attempting the counterintuitive test of becoming methodical about creativity.
What to do?
I’m drawn to urban scenes and times of day other than broad daylight that bring other challenges: mornings and evenings (when I like to be with my boys) and locations that don’t offer parking, and I don’t work strictly from photographs.
To do my best work, I do plein air studies to understand the light, color, and depth, and I prefer this over the limited and distorted information we get from a photo. These studies are quick paintings and sketches that aren’t meant to look good. They’re basically just information-gathering exercises, but they’re very difficult to fit into a busy life.
So I spent six months plotting – making lists of all the places, lighting conditions, and vibes I wanted to paint. My sketchbook had passages like this scribbled in a hasty, borderline illegible hand:
Smithsonian castle golden hour
Twilight solitude
Electric explosion
Lincoln Memorial sunrise/sunset
Capitol Hill history row house rough
Eastern Shore peaceful stand by me
Six months of brainstorming and then I struck! August. Wife and kids away for a week. Late nights and beer on the couch, you might ask?
No!
I woke up before dawn every day, dragged my easel downtown, did a color study or two as the sun was rising, worked on commissions in my studio all day, then headed out for another set of color studies that afternoon or evening.
After a week I had ideas, studies, and compositions for more than a dozen paintings I was on fire to paint.
The next two months were key because I didn’t work on them at all. I worked on my other paintings, led a plein air workshop on a Greek island, and let the ideas marinate.
What if I do this? What if I change that? I usually do it this way, but how else could I do it?
I could not have enjoyed this process more and, due to my scheduled creativity, when the time came to actually paint the paintings, I was ready.
Works by Steven S. Walker in “Proximate”
From the gallery:
The two-person exhibition “Proximate” brings together local artist Gavin Glakas and Georgia-based painter Steven S. Walker, each presenting new work rooted in the landscapes and neighborhoods of the DMV. From quiet residential streets and overlooked corners to charged urban intersections, the exhibition offers a fresh, unsentimental look at a region most people think they already know. For more information about “Proximate” at Principle Gallery, please visit principlegallery.com.
