Jane Hambleton: One Day at Seager Gray Gallery

Jane Hambleton

One Day

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Jane Hambleton: One Day

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Jane Hambleton: One Day EXHIBITION DATES: NOVEMBER 1 - DECEMBER 6, 2020

Front Cover: John Muir Path, 2020 (detail), graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylics and oil on paper, 67 x 50 in Back Cover: Installation: Jane Hambleton: One Day at Seager Gray Gallery Photography by Dana Davis Installation Shot: Jane Hambleton All Rights Reserved

DIRECT INQUIRIES TO:

Seager Gray Gallery 108 Throckmorton Ave. Mill Valley, CA 94941 415.384.8288 art@seagergray.com

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“It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover, to your surprise, that you have rendered something in its true character.�

- C A M I L L E

PISSARRO

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Jane Hambleton: One Day

Jane Hambleton is a Berkeley-based artist working in multiple mediums with an emphasis on graphite drawing. Her work spans the world of painting, drawing and collage with equal agility. Whether focused on the figure or the natural world around us, her highly detailed and layered pieces explore the ephemerality of life asking us to pause, be present and look more deeply.

Each of the drawings in the exhibition are large-scale and are mostly taken from walks around the artist’s neighborhood. The title of the exhibition, One Day refers to “now,” a particular point in time. “It is all part of my practice of trying to be present in my life,” said the artist. “It happens to me most successfully when I am on my walks. I am trying to really look, to really see and to let that be all that I am doing – to observe in stillness.”

Hambleton works on Stonehenge paper with a full range of the B (softer) graphite pencils. Layering the drawing to get the exact tonal elements, she often draws each leaf and detail seven or more times to refine the image, working carefully so as not to damage the tooth of the paper. It is a patient and reverential process.

John Muir Path, 2020 graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 67 x 50 in

She then coats the drawing with acrylic gel medium and applies an oil paint mixture that she removes with a cloth giving it a patina of time and allowing for imperfections in the surface that give each work its own particular character while also strengthening the paper.

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Symbolic of the One Day theme is March 17, 2020, an image of the artist’s hand holding a single fallen leaf. That singular day was the day after the “shelter in place” order for Californians. On that particular day at a that particular time, Hambleton took a walk and picked up that particular fallen leaf. There is the moment. “Our place on this planet is so small.” said Hambleton. She is interested in what the Japanese call “mono no aware,” literally “the pathos of things.” It is the Japanese term for the awareness of the impermanence of things and refers to the ephemeral nature of beauty – the quietly elated bittersweet feeling of being witness to all of the up and down moments of life, balanced by the awareness that none of it can last.

In John Muir Path, Remillard Park and Poppy Lane, the view is from the path looking skyward toward the clear expanse of sky visible between the ombre of the trees ranging in intensity from dark to lighter in the distant branches. The feeling is one of transcendence - lifting the viewer up toward the infinite sky.

That sense of transcendence is echoed in Hambleton’s love of music. “Music is imbued in everything I do,” said Hambleton who spoke about one of her favorite composers, Berkeley’s own John Adams. His composition, Common Tones in Simple times is layered, beginning with sounds evocative of nature and layering up with low piano octaves that seem to drift into eternity.

“There’s a quality in music that inspires me visually,” said the artist. “It begins simply and then ascends, taking you with it.”

While visiting the studio recently, Hambleton pulled out her drawing, Tomales Bay and spoke about a particular morning when the fog was lifting, revealing the density of the shapes of trees in the foreground while still obscuring the water altogether. “The depth,” she explained, “in contrast with so much beautiful space. It was as though nature was doing a reveal from foreground to background as the fog lifted with the artist there as witness.

March 17, 2020 graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 70 x 46 in

October, 2020 Donna Seager

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Magnolia Crown, 2020 graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 49.75 x 29.75 in

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Tomales Bay, 2020 graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 38.5 x 52 in

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Poppy Lane, 2020 graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 57 x 50 in

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Tilden, 2020 graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 68 x 40 in

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Mirror, 2020 graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 46.5 x 38 in

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Canopy I, II and III, 2020 graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper on panel 24 x 24 in each

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Remillard Park, 2020 graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 47 x 42 in

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Inverness, 2020 graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 46 x 38 in

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The Seeds Collages In addition to the large scale drawings, the exhibition includes a series of collages Hambleton refers to as “seeds.” “After working for about a year and a half with just graphite, I was craving some color and began making these “seed” collages.” Seeds are transitional pieces that play with free form and free edge.” In these works, the artist takes swatches of textured color in interplay with snatches of drawings – leaving the viewer with opportunities for free association while moving through sensations of color and form.

Seeds 1, 2020 Collage — graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 36 x 34.25 in

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Seeds 2, 2020 Collage — graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 37 x 36 in

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Seeds 3, 2020 Collage — graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 36 x 32 in

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Seeds 4, 2020 Collage — graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 37 x 31 in

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Seeds 5, 2020 Collage — graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 36 x 39.5 in

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Seeds 6, 2020 Collage — graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 32 x 19.5 in

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Seeds 7, 2020 Collage — graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 28.5 x 16 in

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Seeds 8, 2020 Collage — graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 27 x 20.75 in

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Seeds 9, 2020 Collage — graphite, acrylic gel medium, acrylic and oils on paper 18 x 13.5 in

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JANE HAMBLETON Born 1963. Lives and works in Berkeley, California Solo Exhibitions

2009

Mixed Metaphors and Obsessions Michael Rosenthal Gallery San Francisco, California, USA

2013 awake & away, Seager Gray Gallery Mill Valley, California, USA

2008

No Presents Please, Michael Rosenthal Gallery

2012

Art Fairs

2020 One Day, Seager Gray Gallery Mill Valley, California, USA

swimming fields, Seager Gray Gallery Mill Valley, California, USA

2011

Aqua Art Miami, Miami, Florida

2011 Patterns in Place, Michael Rosenthal Gallery

San Francisco, California, USA

2011

Pulse Art Fair, New York, New York

2009 above, below and what falls between

Michael Rosenthal Gallery

San Francisco, California, USA

2010

Aqua Art Miami, Miami, Florida

2010

San Francisco Fine Art Fair, San Francisco, California

2008 water/safety, Michael Rosenthal Gallery

San Francisco, California, USA

2009

Aqua Art Miami, Miami, Florida

2008

Aqua Art Miami, Miami, Florida

Group Exhibitions

2008

Art.Fair 21 Cologne, Germany

2020 The De Young Open, De Young Museum

San Francisco, California, USA

Publications

2020 Material Matters, Seager Gray Gallery

Mill Valley, California, USA 2011 Inaugural Opening of Seager Gray Gallery

Mill Valley, California, USA 2011 Lady Gaga Could Shop Here,

Michael Rosenthal Gallery

San Francisco, California, USA 2010

New work: James Benjamin Franklin, Jane Hambleton, Megan Whitmarsh Michael Rosenthal Gallery San Francisco, California, USA

2016 2016

The Paris Review Summer 2016, Issue 217 The Moth Magazine Summer 2016, Issue 25

2012

ZYZZYVA Magazine Winter 2012, Volume 28, #3

2010

Press Art: The collection of Annette and Peter Nobel Stampfli Publikationen AG, Bern, Switzerland, 2010

Education 2004-5 California College of Art extension program 1985

B.A. California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, CA.

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