Jeff Bellerose: An Introduction – Recent Paintings

The Paul Thiebaud Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Jeff Bellerose. The show marks this representational painter’s debut with Paul Thiebaud Gallery. This body of work, all oil on canvas, continues the artist’s exploration of cities, places that offer great contrasts in their edifices, thoroughfares, vistas, all tangibly impacting their visitors, and thereby, their viewers of his work. As the painter explained, “One of the things that intrigues me for subject is this combination of abstraction in composition and realism in the image. And, there is something ominous and fascinating in the grand structures and caverns of big cities. Plus, a lot of the things that I paint have an element of the vanishing to them like some mix of the modern and something that is old, in the past, or from a different era.” Though referencing existing locales, such as Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, and identifiable as such, the scenes are intended to offer a more universal cityscape, driven by his interest in the formal issues of painting, light, mood, form or structure. Though begun with some direct observation, reference sketches made on site, and photographs, the canvases are largely created in the studio. Ranging in size from small to medium scale, the scenes are largely devoid of people. He focuses on the permanence of the buildings and structures, allowing the light to drive mood of the canvas. When figures appear, they are secondary to the elements of their setting.