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ABOUT
MY ARTWORK
I came back to painting at a time when some people think about
ending their productive lives. I have created my life several
times, and this has been the best so far. Drawing and painting
have permitted me to open my inner life and my connections to
the world and to the people and places I love. I affirm life and
celebrate beauty, but in 2007 my muse asked me to show the
contrasts in the world: the modern sublime, where beauty and
terror combine. My work continues to tell about the awe and
wonder the eye can see, but it now looks further afield to enter
the ranks of artists who speak out about the world.
I am engaged with modern issues of color and composition within
a contemporary realist context; the paintings say "look at what
I see." And despite commercial pressures I still refuse to allow
or make reproductions of my art. They are original works in
every sense of the word, and my collectors can rely on that.
I paint because ...I am infatuated by the look of the real world
and because I am thrilled by the process. I love the feel of the
brushstroke; I even like the washing up after a session. I use
strong composition, color, and line. There is movement,
intensity, energy, and an edge that reflects my strengths and my
unique "take" on the world.
I became enamored of acrylics when I discovered what I could do
with color on color, with glazing, and with quick repair. I like
to work with a basic palette, but I premix the particular hues,
values, and saturations I want for a specific painting, adding
and changing as I paint.
After finding that plein air (outdoor) painting doesn't suit me,
I developed a way of painting in which I use my camera as a
sketchbook. I create the composition, sometimes combining
elements from several photos. Once I decide on the proportions I
translate that to the size and shape of the stretcher bars for
the canvas. Recently, news photographs have become models for
some of the elements of the paintings.
I rely on color theory and my own instincts to tell me what to
do. I go back again and again while I am working on a piece
until it captures my vision. I remain a representational painter
because the beauty of reality, no matter good or bad, still
holds my attention. While my subjects cover a wide range of
images, the paintings are unified by my eye, as beholder. I am
pleased that some of my paintings are described as beautiful,
and that people sometimes say "Wow."
ABOUT
THE ARTIST
Eleanor Gilpatrick is a contemporary realist. She paints
landscapes, figural works, and still lifes that capture
fragments of the world that arrest the viewer in terms of
composition, color, and content. Working in acrylic on canvas, a
modern colorist, she expresses an affirmation of life with a
hint of the solitary.
In 2007 she embarked on a new undertaking, to express her
thoughts about the state of the world. Her "In The World" series
was the first result and more have been appearing. She offers
the experience of connection through the visual images she
paints. A contrast to the anti-war paintings are her ongoing
nebula paintings. These new series have been inspired by
international press photographers and NASA, whom she credits.
Prior to her art career, Eleanor Gilpatrick was professor at the
School of Health Sciences, Hunter College, City University of
New York (CUNY). She won prizes for painting and draftsmanship
in high school and at the Educational Alliance in New York City,
but chose to study the social sciences in college and graduate
school. She eventually became an expert in health care policy
and human resources, authored four books, directed a masters
program in health services administration, and pioneered courses
in critical thinking and writing.
She picked up the thread of drawing and painting in 1998 in
plein-air workshops in Italy and returned to serious study at
Hunter College, where Gabriele Evertz and Bob Swain became her
mentors. She has been painting successfully ever since.
Gilpatrick's work includes strong, romantic landscapes set in
New York and places she has traveled to in the US and Europe.
She is influenced by the 19th Century sensibility of Turner and
The Hudson River School, but expresses a 21st Century strength
with vigorous brushwork, strong composition, and powerful or
surprising content. The work with the figure looks at people in
motion at a moment in time, absorbed in the activity of their
daily lives, wherever that may be.
Gilpatrick has had solo shows in Manhattan; Eastview/Tarrytown,
NY; Milford, CT; and the Bulgarian Consulate, Manhattan.
She has been in juried shows including the Galleria D'Arte
Mentana, Florence, Italy; the Marymount Manhattan College
Gallery, Manhattan; the Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center Manhattan;
the Pen and Brush Gallery, Manhattan; the Stage Gallery,
Merrick, NY; the First Hudson River Art at Rhinebeck show, NY;
the Westport Cultural Center, CT; The Chautauqua Center for the
Visual Arts, NY; the Bowery Gallery, Manhattan; Gallery
International, Baltimore, MD, where she was awarded 3rd place in
the 2-D category; the Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester,
VT; Gallery West, Alexandria, VA; Art Harvest at WEAVE,
Sacramento, CA; the Riverview Gallery, Havre de Grace, MD; the
Mills Pond House Gallery, St. James, NY; the Woodstock School of
Art Gallery, NY; online with the American Juried Art Salon
(2005, 2006, and 2007) and HerStory, Manhattan Arts
International; The Riverfront Studios, Schuylerville, NY; the
Touchtone Gallery, Washington, DC.; Studio Montclair, George
Segal Gallery, Montclair, NJ; Fieldstone Fine Arts, Ramsey, NJ;
The Organization Of Independent Artists' 5th Annual Juried
Exhibition, Manhattan; The Easton Arts Council, Art In The
House, Easton, CT; The Lana Santorelli Gallery, NYC.; The Hudson
Guild Gallery in NYC, The Stamford Art Association (Faraway
Places), Stamford, CT; The Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY
(Summer on Long Island); the Hun Gallery in Manhattan; The "In
The News" and the "Art Into Life/Life Into Art," and "Body
Image" shows at The Pen and Brush Gallery, Manhattan; the Dayton
International Peace Museum, Dayton OH, and the One Of A Kind
Show, NYC.
Gilpatrick curated a student art show at Hunter College from
2000 to 2008, and then took the competition online through 2012.
Gilpatrick was selected to show at the Riverview Gallery, Havre
de Grace, MD. and Gallery 307 in Manhattan. Her painting, The
Shell Monument, was the August selection for the 2007 Emerging
Artists Calendar. |
