Artist statement – Jerry Ross Feb, 2008
My painting style is the result of a lifelong deep learning process that involves art historical references, painting on a daily basis, observation of nature, and careful attention to the act of painting itself.
I paint landscapes, portraits and figurative works, often times reminiscent of the work of Larry Rivers, Modigliani, Cezanne, or Schiele.
I use the principles of abstraction to organize and compose, sometimes working in a single color (very often sienna) while drawing out an infinity of subtle colors within that monochromatic base.
My interest in portraiture is inspired by the Italian i macchiaioli, early Picasso portraiture, and by the work of Frank Duveneck, a 20th century American painter. My portraits have a strong graphic quality with large sections of one color.
For example, in “Carlo Bianchi,” my painting style focuses on close-up portraiture, a painting style influenced both by computer technology and photography. I seek a special kind of realism informed by the poetics of the person revealed in light, preferably bright sunlight, where the reflections create bold forms that can be studied in the laboratory of the studio and explored with pigments.
I like to push the paint around in a bold and uninhibited manner, guided by my research into distortions created on my computer. Sometimes I utilize the principles of abstraction to reconstruct the image based upon an analysis of the optical information revealed to me in color ink jet prints.
This computer work is preliminary to beginning the painting, which then unfolds intuitively and with empathy for both the subject and the light as is revealed in pigment and subsequent brushwork.
My landscapes have been inspired by trips to Italy and by locations closer to home, like Amazon Park or Mount Pisgah. Although somewhat representational, my landscapes are informed by abstraction. I prefer a poetic, romantic relationship to the subject, nature, which I see as alive and infinitely profound. I have always painted like this but until I discovered the I Macchiaioli Tuscan painters, I did not know there was an entire group painting in this manner with aesthetic theories to back them up.
My studies after Old Masters are inspired by the desire to see the interrelationships forms, intertwining and overlapping, visual energy flowing and combining into diverse forms. Battle scenes and scenes from Veronese, Tiepolo, and Rubens are used to explore the possibilities of Grand Manner painting in a modern style."
Sometimes my focus is line, at other times mass and pure painting. Trusting my intuition, I am willing to take chances in my art; often I will begin to paint directly with color on a pure white canvas but I also enjoy a warm umber or sienna ground that I can paint into, wet on wet. This is all dependent on the situation and mood.
My landscapes reflect my love for nature and land, both Oregon and Italy, and my portraits show my attraction for the human form, especially the face.
My Italian women are metaphors for Italy and all she has to offer. My old master studies point the way back from deconstruction and conceptual art, a road back to Eakins, Anshutz and Schiele but not completely back, just a returning on the reverse side of a moebus strip so to speak, I am going forward as I return to pick up some very valuable luggage, namely the elements of the erotic, the sensuous and the mysterious that are found there once the veil has been lifted, so to speak.
Recently, I have studied the I Macchiaioli more intensively and also the verismo painters that came later, painters like Umberto Coromaldi. I have discovered a rich vein of ore that can be mined forever and which keeps revealing more depth and profundity the deeper one goes into it.
I also try to stay abreast of current trends in painting and I stay open to new influences and experimentation. My recent series of beach paintings (“La Spaiggia” exhibit) shows my current direction towards more figuration and painting “dal vero” (from life).
