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"Young
Dancer"
oil
on canvas - 16"x20"
"Desert
Child"
oil on canvas - 16"x20"
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Gerald
Stephan
address:
1983
Arden Walk Lane
Germantown, TN 38138
email:
phone:
901-251-3698
medium:
oil
artist
statement:
My
interest is painting realistically in oils. Oil paint
gives me the versatility and control that I like. I
feel it also connects me to the great painters and traditions
of the past by using the materials and techniques that
served them so well. I use charcoal and graphite in
preparatory sketches and just for the pleasure of drawing.
I look for subjects that have what I call “emotional
content.” I want to make paintings that give the
viewers something to think about. I am particularly
interested in painting figures and faces that suggest
some aspect of the human condition. But I like to look
for this emotional element in non-figurative subjects
too. Sometimes I can get well into a painting before
I realize it doesn’t have that elusive quality, and
I abandon it.
For me, a successful painting is one
the viewer can come back to again and again without
tiring of it. It is a painting that embodies a question
that is hard to put one’s finger on with an answer that
is just out of reach.
Although I think of my style
as realistic, it ranges from a somewhat impressionistic
look to a fairly high level of realism. Once I get into
a painting, the subject and the way I think about it
seems to dictate how far I go toward detailed realism.
But I never want to take it to a photographic level.
I want the work to be convincing, but still painterly.
Finally,
I want to create something that is enjoyable to look
at—beautiful, in some sense. Because, after all is said
and done, it is going to hang on the wall.
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