Leslie Duke & Brian Astle
305 Main Street, Park City, UT
(435) 649.8160
info@meyergallery.com
December 29th - January 11th
Leslie Duke & Brian Astle: Two-Artist Show Still life painting is a genre that has evolved for hundreds of years, from classic iterations during the Renaissance period to reductive and abstracted interpretations under twentieth-century modernism. Artists today continue to explore the style in refreshing ways with new perspectives and intriguing methods that constantly redefine the genre. This December, Meyer Gallery will showcase two such artists whose contemporary approach to still life painting propels this time-honored tradition into the modern art realm. Leslie Duke and Brian Astle’s Two-Artist Show opens December 29th in Park City at Meyer Gallery. It will remain on display through January 11th. Both artists took an indirect route to still life painting. “I thought it was really boring,� says Duke of her initial
response to the traditional style. “It just didn’t appeal to me.” Duke’s first career was in illustration and design; long days away from her paints and canvas led her to draw inspiration from props she had on hand in the evenings instead of seeking out figurative models. “I would just do a still life everyday to work on my paint quality,” she says. Duke soon realized she wasn’t just painting a straightforward image of an apple or flower vase, but was capturing an inherent mood as she experimented with texture, color and props. “I started to find a lot of artists doing interesting things with still life,” she says. “I realized I didn’t know that much about the genre, or at least what could be done with it.” Duke’s current work emphasizes shape and color through abstracted compositions, giving her paintings an intuitive and playful feel while maintaining a sense of reality. Now, she feels her work pays homage to traditional still life with her saturated color palettes and mood-driven aesthetic, but in a way that is distinctly her own. “I ask myself, how can I make this genre feel
like me? What is that I want to say with it? And it just happens to be more contemporary.” Astle similarly found the genre by default. “I started out as a figurative painter but couldn’t afford models,” he admits. “So I started painting still lifes.” The Idaho artist’s training was in traditional realism, but he has now abandoned realistic techniques in an ironic effort to make his subjects appear more “real.” “I wanted to paint the way your eye sees,” he explains. “One point is in focus but the rest is blurred.” To achieve this effect, Astle uses squeegees, spackling knives, palette knives and other hard-edged tools to soften shapes and blur lines. “I take away a lot of information,” he says of the process. “I paint, scrape down and repaint. It gives a richness not only to the colors but also to the edges.” Astle’s latest artistic endeavor has been incorporating still life design and technique into his exploration of plein air painting.
“With still life, you have ultimate control with things like setup and lighting,” he says. “Now, it’s the challenge of going into the elements and reclaiming that control.” For the Two-Artist Show, Astle will show a series of landscapes in addition to his contemporary still lifes. Meyer Gallery, owned by Susan Meyer, was established in 1965 by Darrell and Gerry Meyer. Since it’s foundation as one of Park City’s premier art galleries, Meyer Gallery has grown to become one of Utah’s leading contemporary art icons. Located at 305 Main Street in an 1890 Historic Landmark Building, the gallery is committed to showcasing Utah’s exciting emerging talent as well as mid-career to established artists from across the region. Gallery artists work in a variety of mediums and styles, from contemporary realism to abstraction.
- kelly skeen
Leslie Duke
Mementos 60”x 84”, oil
Blossoming 50”x 30”, oil
First Fruits 12”x 26”, oil
Treasures 24”x 18”, oil
Golden Hour 58”x 54”, oil
Morning’s Table 28”x 28”, oil
Brian astle
Arrangement on Blue 16”x 12”, oil
Break of Day 24”x 15”, oil
Memory of Spring 14”x 11”, oil
Fruits of Fall 19”x 19”, oil
October Morning 24”x 18”, oil
Fall Arrangement in Red and Yellow 16”x 16”, oil
Primary Arrangement 12”x 12”, oil
On the Water 18”x 18”, oil
Persistance of Summer 10”x 10”, oil
Symphony in White 18”x 27”, oil
Edge of Winter 20”x 20”, oil
Edge of Control 10”x 10”, oil
Edge of Night 15”x 20”, oil
Break in the Clouds 15”x 20”, oil