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I, Grace Doyle, make intimate representational oil paintings of people meaningful to me in their environments. I respond intuitively to what I see around me. I use compelling situations that tickle my aesthetic as a starting point. For example, a shape, color, mood, or the way in which light slices across a form. By layering, scraping, and blending paint, the surfaces become a record of my process. I make formal choices that highlight psychological tension within the compositions. These choices are influenced by my familiarity with the individual and my personal history. I use the environments as vehicles for information to influence the mood. Quiet, introspective moments reveal a vulnerable side of the human experience that is only unveiled when we are not performing and fulfilling societal roles. The visual narrative can be appreciated independently of the painting as an object; however, together they strengthen the overall viewing experience.
Doyle is a Baltimore, Maryland native. She graduated from The Baltimore School for the Arts in 2006, MICA with a BFA in 2009, and The University of Baltimore with an MBA in 2019. She is currently enrolled in Towson University's MFA Studio Arts program. Throughout her studies, Doyle has spent several summers painting abroad including in Norway, under contemporary figurative painter Odd Nerdrum. In 2021, Doyle was a Boynes Emerging Artist Award Finalist and a Bethesda Painting Awards Semi-Finalist. In 2019, she was a recipient of a MSAC Individual Artist Award for Painting. Her work has been displayed in the Maryland area since 2005 and has been the recipient of several awards. Doyle is an Adjunct Professor at Towson University and the Community College of Baltimore County. She serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors at Hamilton Arts Collective.
(w) www.gracedoyle.art | (c) 443.540.1123 | (e) grace@gracedoyle.art
Greg McLemore is both an artist and art educator, living in Baltimore, MD. His art employs the idea of Magical Realism as a starting point to explore the tragic, mysterious, and often comical aspects of life. His work ranges from elaborately detailed urban landscapes to fantastical, surreal narratives to creative portraits, and many things in between.
Greg earned a Master of Fine Arts at The University of Arizona in 2003 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts at The University of North Carolina Asheville in 1999. He exhibits his work both regionally and nationally, with recent solo exhibitions at Notre Dame University, MD, Lycoming College, PA, and Hamilton Gallery in Baltimore. Recent group exhibitions include showing at Limner Gallery, NY, University of Maryland in Adelphi, MD, and multiple galleries in the Baltimore area. Recent publications and awards include inclusion in Issue 142 New American Paintings (South), and Artist of the Year, 2019, with Limner Gallery/ Slow Art Productions in NY. Greg was a semifinalist for the 2016 Sondheim Prize and was awarded an Individual Artist Grant in Painting by the Maryland State Arts Council in 2016 and 2019. He is an Adjunct III Professor of Art at Towson University.
New Watercolors 2021
I am currently working on a series of watercolors that employ mannequins, animals, skeletons, and other still life material. Though they are still life paintings, they work very much like narrative paintings, insomuch as the figures and objects tell stories. I have come to see mannequins as possessing very life-like qualities with tremendous expressive potential. Beyond the narrative, I am working to make bright, luminous watercolors and hoping to get a little closer to mastering this difficult medium.
The Creative Class
This is an ongoing series of watercolor portraits describing the life and spaces of the "creative class." So far I have worked with friends, either married or engaged, and their pets. It is important that I understand and explore my sitters personal symbolism, and include it, as much as possible, in the narrative. So far the process of seeing and developing each person's symbolic personae, and how the two sitters engage with each other and me, has been very interesting!
As an artist, it's no surprise that most of my friends are also artists, of one form or another. In some cases, I have worked to incorporate some of what they do/ make into their painting. In others I focus more on trying to find symbols that most accurately capture their beliefs and aesthetic ideas.
On the Stoop
The On the Stoop Series, made with ink wash and pen, started as a tongue in cheek exploration
of stoop culture in Baltimore. City folks of all stripes enjoy sitting out on their front steps and
watching the world go by. As the series developed, I started seeing interesting political and social overtones evolve in the work. Some of this is about my relationship to the city, and some delves into our specific social issues, both in the local and the international arena. I hope that a darkly comical feeling is evoked, with references to the satirical work of the English artist, William Hogarth among many others in the satirical, illustrative tradition.
Nagasaki Sketchbook Paintings 2020
This group of paintings started in Nagasaki, Japan. When my wife and I go to visit her family, I often draw in my sketchbook. Over time I have amassed several sketchbooks full of ideas. The imagery is from parks, hospitals, temples, cathedrals, parking lots, the wharf, graveyards, shrines, museums, and other places I have visited while in this fascinating city.
I simply sit and draw what I see, for a limited time, then move to what comes next. I try and keep the sketches moving at the same speed as my perception and experience of the area. This process helps me to experience what this city and the people here are all about. The drawings are not completely observational, as some of my other work is- but are observations combined with interpretation and imagination. While I certainly lean toward specific symbolic or iconographical material as anchors in these paintings, I take joy in incorporating aspects of the everyday as well. From the sketchbooks, I form the paintings you see here. I have re- drawn them much larger, on canvas, and painted them. I work fairly quickly and instinctively with the paint. The goal is to keep the immediacy and spontaneity of the sketches, while opening and deepening their meaning through color, texture, and value.
Website – www.gregmclemoreart.com Instagram – GregoryMcLemore Baker Artist Award Site - https://bakerartist.org/node/2729 Artist of the Year, Slow Art Publications - https://www.slowart.com/pubs.htm
