Life of Wry

I’m telling you.. our friend Phil just gets better and better. Jim and I can honestly say we knew him when. When being before he started painting. I can’t pinpoint that year, but I can say that he took up painting sometime in the last twenty years, but not a moment before. He’s been a lifelong artist, but in other media — ceramic, tile, dance, music, video… maybe other things I don’t know about.

We feel fortunate to have a few Phil Grosses around the house… like six of them, most from his very early days. We can’t afford to acquire them now, nor do we have wall space for these large pieces. But I do love his current work So photos of them on my blog will have to be good enough!

He’s having a show at the Artery this month, its opening was last night.

That is a remarkable likeness. (Phil’s the one on the left.)

The show had about 15-20 pieces. I loved most of them, but this was my favorite:

He’s been doing aerial views of our valley for a long time. The clouds are a new addition. Here is a bit of detail:

What the detail tells me is, there is a level of complexity that is way more than meets the eye. I’m fascinated by the detail of artists’ paintings. For example, the splashes of color on Phil’s self-portrait. I can guarantee it’d never occur to me, if I were to paint a self-portrait, to put green or yellow or blue or red lines in those places where he’s done that. If I didn’t zoom way in on that self-portrait, I’m sure I’d never have noticed ANY of those colors … I’d have only seen his likeness, his gross (as it were) features. Like Wayne Thiebaud (a mentor and inspiration to Phil), the color is what makes the paintings pop, but you kind of have to look to find it.