Douglas Fryer "The Edge of Earth and Air" 2021

DOUGL A S FRY ER

April 12 – 24, 2021 Scottsdale Opening Reception | Thursday, April 15 | 7:00–9:00pm

DOUGL A S FRY ER The Edge of Earth and Air

Jackson Hole | Scottsdale | AltamiraArt.com

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Earth and Heaven Oil on panel | 60 x 60 inches Enquire

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DOUGLAS FRYER The Earth and Heaven represents the creative process. Even though the works in the show generally feel tied together in concept and execution, each painting retains its own individuality, defined by subject, color palette or composition. It’s hard to shed your unique handwriting or mark-making choices, so the group shares a unifying rhythm of brush- and knife-work. They all relate to the concept suggested by the show title, The Edge of Earth and Air: the demarcation between earth and air can seem distinct at times and indistinct in other moments.

I enjoy playing with the “absolute” nature of solidity versus ephemerality; air can display tremendous weight and substance, while earth can seem fluid and transient.

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Poetic, sublime and contemplative: these are the qualities that go through my mind as I paint. To do something that has some poetry to it. That makes the viewer pause, think, feel and get lost in it. Work that lifts, elevates the state-of-mind and helps us transcend the ordinary and leave us in quiet awe.

In Earth and Heaven, I wanted to reduce everything to two essential elements: the sky and the ground plane. Pure simplicity, but with endless variety within the elements. The distant

point where heaven and earth meet becomes the ultimate area of focus, that place of simultaneous blending and resisting.

There is a greater sense of abstraction in this painting than many I have done in the past. More than subject matter, the real power of any artwork lies in its abstract qualities, and the variation therein, such as the subtle shifts of hue within areas that may first appear solid gray.

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High Desert Winter Oil on panel | 24 x 60 inches Enquire

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Desert Canyon Oil on panel | 48 x 48 inches Enquire

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Desert Dream Oil on panel | 27 x 60 inches Enquire

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Transfiguration Oil on panel | 48 x 48 inches Enquire

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Sunset, Mid January Oil on panel | 27 x 60 inches Enquire

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Morning Mist Lifting (Canal Creek) Oil on panel | 60 x 60 inches Enquire

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Spring-fed Pasture, June Oil on panel | 30 x 30 inches Enquire

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Desert Wash Oil on panel | 30 x 60 inches Enquire

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White Hills Oil on panel | 48 x 48 inches Enquire

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Canyon Winds Oil on panel | 20 x 60 inches Enquire

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7038 E Main Street | Scottsdale, Arizona AltamiraArt.com | 480-949-1256

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