"Bookseller's Night" by Gregg Chadwick in the latest issue of The Santa Ana River Review

Honored to have my painting "Bookseller's Night" in the latest issue of The Santa Ana River Review. A wonderful art and literary magazine out of UC Riverside.

Link Here: http://sarreview.ucr.edu/booksellers-night/

Tomorrow and Thursday in Nor Cal: The Painted Word Book Tour

I am honored to announce the publication of my latest collaboration with the author Phil Cousineau: The Painted Word. 

Sixty-three of my artworks are included in this new volume. 

Book Tour Dates - All Are Welcome & All Events are Free. I will bring a group of the artworks included in the book to each event listed below:

In Northern California:

Tomorrow: Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word at Book Passage 

51 Tamal Vista Blvd | Corte Madera, California

Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 7:00 PM (Art by Gregg Chadwick Courtesy The Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco)

Thursday: Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word 

City Lights Booksellers | 261 Columbus Avenue | San Francisco, California

Thursday, September 13, 2012, 7:00 PM (Art by Gregg Chadwick Courtesy The Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco)

In Southern California:

Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word at Warwick's Books | 7812 Girard Avenue | La Jolla, California

Wednesday, November 7, 2012, 7:30 PM

Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word | Book Soup | 8818 Sunset Blvd West | Hollywood, California

Thursday, November 8, 2012, 7:00 PM

NEW BOOK:  The Painted Word By Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick

"When Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick join creative forces it is an important event. This historic collaboration shines with fresh insights into both language and art."
— Alexander Eliot, author of 300 Years of American Painting and The Global Myths

Notes on the Artwork In The Painted Word
When I was young, the form of words—the way they looked— intrigued me and I often wondered what it would be like to look at a word and not be able to read or understand it. In essence, I wondered about the indecipherable mystery behind the word. The artworks I have created for The Painted Word take that sense of mystery into the world of paint and image.

Each creation began with that wonderful, slippery stuff that never wants to be tamed or pinned down: paint. Specifically, I use oil paint for its historical resonance and also because of its liquid origins in the oil pressed from flax. From this plant comes both linseed oil, which is mixed with dry powdered pigments to create oil paint, and linen, which traditionally has been used as the surface that oils are painted upon. Whenever I unroll a new bolt of linen in my studio a rich fragrance reminis- cent of a newly cut field fills the room.

I find that freshly stretched paintings waiting for their first touch of color invite the mystery of life and creation. The word stories written by Phil Cousineau opened up a similar sense of wonder. Like the words, each tube of paint also brought its history into the room. Color names are words steeped in myth and meaning. Lapis Lazuli evokes dangerous treks along the Silk Road into Afghanistan that brought this exquisite blue stone into the workshops of Renaissance artists. The pigment was so expensive and so important it was often reserved for coloring the heavens and Mary’s garments. A separate clause in the artist’s contract would dictate how much the client would pay for the Lapis Lazuli in addition to the amount paid for the artist’s services. Other colors weren’t so dear but were still rich in lore. Burnt Sienna is a warm brown earth pigment that was dug up in the fields surrounding Siena, Italy. Cinnabar, a brilliant red originally found in minerals veined with mercury, also made its way along the Silk Road from its source in China. I used all three of these colors in many of the paintings in The Painted Word.

Gregg Chadwick

(From The Painted Word, available in September 2012. 

Published in the United States by Viva Editions, an imprint of Cleis Press, Inc., 2246 Sixth Street, Berkeley, California 94710.)

"If The Painted Word were a club act, I'd sit there drinking in Cousineau's revelations, tales and mythologies until they kicked me out of the joint. Reading this brew of etymology, history, lore, and pop connections, with lambent illustrations by Gregg Chadwick, is just as intoxicating. A Cousineau riff on a (passionately selected) word is like Mark Twain meets Coleridge meets Casey Stengel meets---well, everyone who's fun and informative, whether the riff is on autologophagist (someone who eats his/her words) or jack, which, believe me, the world-traveled Cousineau knows when it comes to language. "

—Arthur Plotnik, author of The Elements of Expression: Putting Thoughts Into Words

La Vita Trasparente (The Transparent Life)

Gregg Chadwick

La Vita Trasparente (The Transparent Life)

48"x36" oil on linen 2012

Inspired by the poem

La Vita Trasparente by Luigi Fontanella:

LA VITA TRASPARENTE

Luigi Fontanella

Apre la città le sue strade,

corrono biciclette senza persone,

alla finestra s'affaccia

e sparisce un volto di donna,

le vetrine offrono sessi

per ogni stagione,

giro di vite:

balla una coppia agile e magra

nella piazza deserta,

la corsa degli uomini,

agita chiome il bosco

in controluce,

passi su foglie

e solchi di fango duro,

viale d'autunno

carrozza regale

pioggia di rugiada

e di carta:

la vita trasparente.

The Transparent Life

by Luigi Fontanella

(translation by W.S. di Piero)

the city opens its streets,

bicycles go by riderless,

a woman's face in a window

appears then vanishes,

shop windows offer fetishes

for every season,

lives turning,

a slender agile couple dances

in the deserted piazza,

the race men run,

the hairy woods shivering

against the grain of light,

footsteps on leaves

a furrow of stiff mud,

avenue of autumn

royal coach

rain of dew

and paper -

the transparent life.

More at:

Luigi Fontanella

Barcarole

Gregg Chadwick 

Barcarole

14"x14" oil on linen 2012

Seeing Deeply With Art Writer Peter Clothier at Gregg Chadwick's Studio on Thursday, May 24, 2012

Dear Friends,

I am honored to invite you to register for the next One Hour/One Painting Art Meditation Session which will be led by the distinguished art writer Peter Clothier at 6:30pm on May 24th, 2012 in my studio at the Santa Monica Airport. 

Peter has recently hosted One Hour/ One Painting sessions at the Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series exhibit at the Orange County Museum of Art and at the LA Louver Gallery. When describing Peter Clothier's sessions, I am often asked what to expect. In short, Peter will guide a small group of people through an exercise in 'concentrated looking' over the course of one hour's time. He will do this by taking us, as individuals in a group, on a visual and contemplative tour of my large, six by eight foot, painting A Balance of Shadows. We will experience color, shape, space and image in a concentrated yet calm and meditative manner using our eyes and minds. 

I see this as an 'exercise in learning how to see' or 'how to see more deeply' rather than an exercise in the making of an art piece. To clarify, we will not be making a painting of our own during this session. 

While I will be at the session, I am not leading this event. It is being organized and led by Peter; there is a $25 charge per person payable to Peter Clothier by check or credit card at the event but please reserve a space with Emily  (emilypersist86@gmail.com). I am honored that Peter has chosen to hold his event in my studio (but I do not receive any of the fees.)

 Please see the flier below for further details on the piece we will be viewing, location, time, and how to register.  If you have any questions feel free to contact me via email or my cell 

415 533 1165, Peter's assistant Emily at emilypersist86@gmail.com, or Peter Clothier at peterclothier@mac.com. 

This session will be discreetly videotaped for possible inclusion on the website of the Buddhist Journal, Tricycle. More on Tricycle at: http://www.tricycle.com/

I hope to see you at my studio on May 24, 2012.

Gregg

Peter Clothier's Bio:

Peter Clothier has a long and distinguished career as an an internationally-known art writer, novelist and poet. Peter avoids the jargon that obscures much current writing about art by using readily understood language that illuminates rather than obfuscates. Clothier seeks to achieve a harmony of mind, heart, and body in his work, and looks for this quality in the artists he writes about. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Artscene, ARTNews and other publications. Peter writes a daily weblog,The Buddha Diaries, and is a contributing blogger to The Huffington Post. He also hosts a monthly podcast entitled "The Art of Outrage," on ArtScene Visual Radio."
Peter Clothier's latest books are Persist and Mind Work.