"The Gregories"

Devon Nowlin

oil on canvas, 2010, 45x75"

Leaving Nothing Behind (2010, oil on canvas, 72x44") was chosen by jurors Christina Rees and Richard Patterson for 500x's Expo 2010. 

I don't know the young man in this painting. I like to think that he had a crush on a neighbor-girl who recently went off to college. He broke his arm rescuing her cat who was left behind at her parent's house, and who, distraught over her owner's absence, climbed too high up a tree and wouldn't come down. The photograph used as reference for the painting was taken as a record of his heroism. Alternate title: Firefighter 1.

New paintings and drawings are on their way, coming along nicely. I'm getting quite comfortable in my new studio at TCU. It has already proven to be a great place for me to come and get busy painting. I am adding the first of my completed works to the website's galleries but they might appear on my Flickr account faster.

Afternoon on Beringer Hill is representative of the work I'm doing from my collection of found photographs, mostly from the 1940s & 50s. 

Meditative Elements Produce Beneficial Effects was produced at the invitation of Anne Allen, curator for the Trinity Perspectives; Views of an Urban River exhibition at the Fort Worth Community Art Center. The exhibit was organized as a benefit for Streams and Valleys, Inc. and opens for Fall Gallery Night on September 12. See the link for other artists included in the exhibition.

I researched images of the river from the early 20th century and chose one of a Clear Fork flood in 1935 as my source for the river to bring together images of past & present/environment vs man. The figure in the painting, Woody Evans, exerts a calm and guiding force over the turbulent nature of the flood waters. 

PaintPresent - Loudoun House Gallery, Lexington, Ky. "Paintpresent explores contemporary ideas and images in painting with a focus on dense abstractions, fantastic figurations and architectural anomie." - from website.

I was very pleased to have "Designed for Contemporary Living" accepted in this show; the parameters of what they were seeking sounded like my work fit in well. Looking at the online gallery posting, I think the works included in the sphere of "dense abstraction" could be a great smaller show by themselves, and I would liked to have seen more "fantastic figurations" (of course). To me, this painting seems to stick out like a sore thumb, but I have to remind myself that I am looking at the selections online, everything seen at the same scale, the artists listed alphabetically. I bet it is beautifully curated, though.