Geoffrey Williams

Wild River and Red Canyon Series

Artist’s Statement

The Wild River Paintings are a survey of many places I’ve been in recent years from Alaska to Idaho, Montana, Oregon, New Mexico and the rivers of Northern California such as the Pitt, Sacramento, Hat Creek and the McCloud. The Red Canyon paintings are inspired by recent travels to the Green River of Utah and the surrounding landscapes of the Uinta Mountains and the high plateau country of Wyoming .

For me there is a wonderful connection between the meditative and conscious aspects of fly-fishing and the act of painting itself. As well as the obvious inspirational connection, they share similar processes of observation and execution. In fishing, one is immersed in a river environment subconsciously absorbing its different elements of light and movement, color and form, water flow and weather, while also making direct observations of the aquatic life of the trout and their food sources, patterns of behavior, al in the context of a lager landscape.

In painting, I begin by visualizing an image out of this stored information. The process then becomes a balance between reflection or meditation on the stages of a work, adsorbing the work in progress and then deciding on the next step or layer on the way to a complete work. Not only knowing when to stop, but often a surprising change of direction; the paintings complete the process and mirror the experience becoming another meditation. I work strictly from memory and I try to create a collage of ideas about a place rather than a specific view. The pieces change for me and become different perspectives and whether it is a topographical or a “river” image I think the paintings are open ended enough for other viewers associations.

As a painter, I’m interested in these images as an expression of my relationship to them, visualization on canvas of my joys, anxieties and explorations, the mortality and the continuity and change in these forces. In this process I experience a balance between these wild places and my urban life; the paintings are mirrors of necessary experience in the wilderness. I’ve always been interested in the “process”, to know a place well enough to paint an intuitive imaginary image of it but also to transcend  the aesthetic, to explore the mystery and the relationship between the intuitive gesture, ones feelings, and decisive actions. Not unlike I suppose the Zen notion of “mind”, the meditation of naturalness, spontaneity and the relativity of change.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Education:

            1974 MFA, University of California, Santa Barbara

            1972 BA, University of California, Santa Barbara

Solo Exhibitions:

            1973 – 2003 Numerous Gallery and Museum Solo Show’s.

                                    Idaho, Utah and California

Group Exhibitions:

            1974 – 2005 Numerous Gallery and Museum Group Show’s

                                    Idaho, Utah and California

(Solo and Group Exhibitions; fine details available upon request.)

Selected Collections:

            AT&T, New York, New York

            Broad, Khourie & Schulz, San Francisco, California

            Or-Ida Corp. Boise, Idaho

            Moana Corp. Hawaii

            Oak Investment Partners, Palo Alto, California

            Olympic Venture Partners, Palo Alto, California

            Sonoma Mission Inn, Sonoma, California

            IBM, San Francisco, California

            UPSIDE, Stockholm, Sweden

            Pavilion-Inter Continental Hotel, Singapore

            Charles Swerz & Associates, New York, New York

            Hughes Aircraft Corp. Los Angeles, California

            San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California

            Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California

            Lakeview Museum of Art, Peoria, Illinois

            Portman Hotel, San Francisco, California

            Hitachi Corp. San Jose, California

            Tandem Computer Corp. New York, New York

            Carter, Hawley, Hale, Los Angeles, California

            Pepper, Hamilton and Sheetz, Los Angeles, California

            Westinghouse Corp. San Francisco, California

            Wilson, Sansini, Goodrich and Rosati, Palo Alto, California

            ST. John and Cravett, San Francisco, California

            Conrad Hilton Hotel, Chicago, Illinois

            Highlands Inn, Carmel, California

            Grosvenor International, San Francisco, California

            Amel Development Corp. Santa Ana, California

            National Intercity Bank, Santa Clara, California

            Oki Semiconductor, Santa Clara, California

            Industrial Bank of Japan , San Francisco, California

            Fireman’s Fund Insurance, San Francisco, California

            First Interstate Bank, San Francisco, California

Reviews/Bibliography

            “Arts and Artists”, Santa Barbara News Press (January 27^th, 1974)

            “Arts and Artists, Williams Exhibit”, Santa Barbara News Press (February 1, 1975)

            “Museum Here Will Feature a Native Son”, Palm Springs Desert Sun

               ( January 10^th, 1978 )

            “Shedding Some Light on Art”, San Francisco Chronicle (July 14^th, 1978)

            “Landscape References”, Artweek (February 6^th, 1982)

Reviews/Bibliography (continued)

“Williams’ Art-Water, Rock Images”, Boise Statesman (February 1983)

            “Views of the Land”, Artweek (March 10^th, 1984)

            “Eclectic, Lakeview Museum Show”, Peoria Journal Star (July 17^th, 1988)

            “Painting and the Zen of Fly-fishing, The Art of Geoffrey Williams”,

               Brntwd Magazine (Summer 1997)

Iron Horse Gallery is very proud to represent Geoffrey Williams and his beautiful paintings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~