“Combining Forces” – (a camera and a brush)

A new exhibit, featuring the works of Arun Patel and Keith Wilson, opening Saturday, April 3, 2021, from 11 am to 7 pm in the Burnett Gallery at Gualala Arts. Members Preview on Friday, April 2, 2021, 11 am to 4 pm. Exhibit continues through Sunday, May 2, 2021.

Arun Patel, a photographer, and Keith Wilson, a painter, have long shared an intense common interest in the nature of nature and sublime beauty by producing artwork as an informed response to the non-artificial environment. The exhibition, “Combining Forces”, will include a selection of their existing individual observations but will feature collaborations which they produced  in the creation of unique jointly-created artworks. Included will be works that feature both artists interpreting the same scene and/or both artists’ work presented on the same paper through digital merging and fusing.

The North Coast has been a continual inspiration for these artists, and this exhibit will provide a close up view of the unknown details and phenomena which make it a unique place to live. Through years of intense study of Japanese aesthetics and Chinese painting traditions coupled with extensive travel in rural Japan and China, a framework for experiencing the North Coast shore, meadows and forest zones has guided them.

Responding with a slow and measured observation of the local area, it is the intent to reveal and share these observations with the community through the created artworks providing the encouragement to the visiting viewers to develop similar individual viewing habits and engender an intense painterly appreciation of the North Coast.

Arun Patel will exhibit photographic work on special handmade papers that he prints on special large format printers. 

He is interested in creating art at the intersection of black & white photography and painting, taking principles from Asian landscape paintings such as the use of negative space and creating layers. Furthermore, he is passionate about Japanese washi paper, and matching the image to the translucence and texture of the varied papers in his collection. Arun Patel’s website is: https://www.arunpatelstudio.com

Keith Wilson has been a painter for over 45 years. He was a student of Charles Moore and worked on special projects with Lawrence Halprin. He has participated in Open Studios in the area and has exhibited locally including the Gualala Arts Center for over 12 years. For a period of years Keith Wilson observed and painted the local meadows and mountains with the combined  elements of hand ground sumi-ink and watercolor, These meditations on the natural world were exhibited and enjoyed widely. Three were in the Gualala Art Center’s Juried MAY SHOW (2010) where one was awarded the first prize.

Keith Wilson’s website is: www.KeithWilsonArt.com. Keith Wilson will display oil paintings, sumi-ink/watercolors and ink drawings on stone.

“We postulated that in the visual arts, as in music, perhaps collaboration could be synergistic. The collaborative work was to be a merging of photographic output and hand painted work. It was initiated by many discussions between Patel and Wilson sharing a strong appreciation and respect for each other’s work and aesthetic background and interests. At the time that they had submitted a proposal they had outlined their anticipated work methodology  which proposed over-painting on Arun’s minimalist photographs but as things developed scale issues and material limitations surfaced requiring an entirely different approach. Taking advantage of the tremendous editing and compositing strengths of Adobe Photoshop 2021, the revised direction was to merge the photographs with the watercolors producing a unique combination/alignment that only this intensive time consuming method could provide. Arun acquired a state of the art wide format printer and set about printing on Archival Hahnemuhl Museum Etching paper stock. The merging of unique artistic visions was successfully accomplished in a mindful and respective fashion that enhances and respects the individual contribution. Along with the introduction of nine large mounted and framed collaborative prints a section of the exhibit will be devoted to illustrating the process.” 

The ArunPatel/KeithWilson Digital Collaboration Project 2021 was a true test of how artists address to the isolation required by this period of Covid 19 pandemic. Although they have studios less than 2 hedgerows apart, in-person meeting time was strictly limited. Having to share files and scans over the internet was the strongest organizing factor in making this exhibit possible.