| Artist Statement | ||||
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| Painting is a means of communicating &
deepening one's personal perceptions & reactions to
the world, the small things that strike us as poignant,
even if only for a fleeting instant.
Painting is a means for closer observation of the world, and of one's self. Representational painting is a language for expressing or recording what's visible, but I feel it is of most interest when focused on something not entirely visible. In other words, I try to paint the exterior world in such a way as to evoke the mysterious richness & vastness of the interior world each of us carries within. My hope is that some of that feeling is passed on, or generated anew in the viewer. |
 White Light #2 Oil on Panel, 36" x 36" 2007 |
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| Biography | ||||
| A Bay Area artist, Gage Opdenbrouw was born and raised
in San Jose, California, who lives, works, and teaches in San Francisco. He is a painter
who works in a variety of different modes and sizes, ranging from
realism to near-total abstraction. Working primarily from the memory
and imagination, he attempts to distill his images to a point where
there is a powerful emotional resonance. He paints primarily in oil, and the vast majority of his works involve the figure or the landscape in one way or another. Opdenbrouw’s paintings comprise several distinct, yet interrelated bodies of work. His body of landscape paintings, often painted from memory or the imagination, explore color and the vastness of space as ways to evoke an emotional response. The “Strangers” series began as a grid of blurred portraits of unrecognizable figures, and has grown into an exploration of identity and often incorporates landscape imagery as well. His figurative paintings span a wide range of styles, ranging from portraits to a series of compositions based on snapshots of anonymous crowds in public places. Recently his figurative paintings have been mainly of close friends and family members, including a current series of works based on photos of friends taken during the Day of the Dead parade. These paintings are a deeply personal meditation on the more universal themes of love and loss, friendship and family, life and death, and the intertwining of all of the above. In addition to his studio work, he also teaches painting & drawing in a private capacity. His paintings have been widely collected, and exhibited across the country. |
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