Jeffery Pugh: Bones & Bison

bones & bison Jeffery Pugh

305 Main Street, Park City, UT

(435) 649.8160

info@meyergallery.com

FEBRUARY 17 - march 1

Jeffery Pugh Annual Solo Show

bones & bison

Jeffery Pugh’s saturated color palette, textural brushwork and linear compositions blend graphic realism with painterly abstraction to form the Utah artist’s distinct painting style. Wide pastures, angled barns, grazing cattle and mountainous vistas characterize his work along with tactile layers of paint.

Over the past five years, however, Pugh’s landscapes have become more than familiar scenes from his homeland or western travels. They are now layered with personal references and discrete thematic narratives inspired by the artist’s life. Pugh’s most recent body of symbolic landscapes will debut at Meyer Gallery on February 17th with an artist reception from 6-9pm.

“I could continue painting landscapes my entire life,” says Pugh. “But I wanted them to mean more to me.”

Groups of three, whether it’s cows, barns or trees, are commonly found within Pugh’s compositions as symbols of his young children. One of Pugh’s most recent “gateway paintings,” in which an open gate or arch entryway separates a pastoral scene, depicts two cows in the foreground and a herd of three cows beyond the gate’s entry. Pugh and his wife are symbolized in the front, while the herd on the other side represents their children venturing out into the world.

A white barn in another painting with clouds rising behind it is a representation of the artist and his accomplishments. “The more I paint, the more I realize that I’m not necessarily interested in portraying a specific location,” he says. “I’m trying

to say what’s going on in my life through these landscapes.”

Even though viewers are often reminded of a Pugh painting when traveling through northern Utah, Wyoming or southern Idaho, Pugh has never been interested in replication. Photos from road trips act as reference points in the studio, but he often pieces several scenes together to form a composition.

Apart from glazing, Pugh works exclusively with a palette knife in order to replace intricate details with heavily textured shapes and thick layers of pigment.

“I want to remind people that it’s still a painting,” he says.

Pugh’s latest body of work encompasses a variety of subjects; his Solo Show at Meyer Gallery will consist of gateway paintings, cloudscapes, pastoral scenes and even macro views of buffalo and cow skulls.

According to the artist, this juxtaposed vision echoes

the frenetic pace in his personal life with three young children, yet the work maintains an overarching feeling of contentment. “There is so much happening that my hands are everywhere all at once,” he says of his life and his art. “But it still feels very strong, settled and rooted.”

Meyer Gallery, owned by Susan Meyer, was established in 1965 by Darrell and Gerry Meyer.

Since it’s foundation as one of Park City’s premier art galleries, Meyer Gallery has grown to become one of Utah’s leading contemporary art icons. Located at 305 Main Street in an 1890 Historic Landmark Building, the gallery is committed to showcasing Utah’s exciting emerging talent as well as mid-career to established artists from across the region. Gallery artists work in a variety of mediums and styles, from contemporary realism to abstraction.

- kelly skeen

Half Dozen 12”x 12”, oil

A River Runs Through It 12”x 16”, oil

Poor Parking 12”x16”, oil

Snow Tracks 12”x16, oil

Exit To The Right 12”x36”, oil

Farm Houses 18”x14”, oil

Rockstar 18”x14”, oil

Leftovers 12”x9”, oil

Bleached 18”x14”, oil

Working Left to Right 12”x36”, oil

Frozen Tundra 12”x36”, oil

Mountain Lake (Catherine) 20”x 20”, oil

Northern Exposure 18”x 24”, oil

The Watering Hole 22”x28”, oil

Cross Bar 24”x18”, oil

Seasonal Storage 24”x48”, oil

Inn on the Creek 24”x18”, oil

Field of Greens 24”x18”, oil

The Golden Age 24”x 48”, oil

Skull Ranch 30”x24”, oil

Drive By Parking 30”x30”, oil

Posterity 30”x30”, oil

Winter Wonderland 30”x30”, oil

Furrowed Farmland 36”x60”, oil

Rusted Roof Diner 36”x48”, oil

Flooded Field 30”x24”, oil

Summer Thunderhead 30”x30”, oil

Winter Blues 36”x36”, oil

A Barn With A View 36”x72”, oil

Un Champ D’Or (Golden Field).

40”x30”, oil

High Rise 48”x24”, oil

Mountain Pass 48”x60”, oil

Buffalo Bill 40”x30”, oil

Storm on the Horizon 48”x72”, oil

Checking In 48”x72”, oil

Along The Pioneer Trai 4”x6”, oil

Trophy 8”x6”, oil

Mountain Shadows 8”x8”, oil

Blue Betty 6”x8”, oil

Summer Strolling 36”x60”, oil

about jeffery pugh

“Art has always dominated the direction of my life. I remember that when I was very young, I would go to my grandmothers and paint little watercolors with her as she painted. Even then, I remember learning the importance of seeing. This has continued throughout my life and has helped me learn and grow. It has filtered the way that I view my surroundings. I no longer ignore the beauty of the landscape. It isn’t just dirt and trees and sky. It is a compound of colors and values and shapes.”

“I love the idea of ‘filters and abstractions’. It has been the catalyst for my work from the start. I need to explain the terms as I use them. A filter is any sort of separation from the source of the painting. That could be from painting en plein air (which would be one degree of separation) to photographing a site, manipulating it on the computer and printing it off on a napkin (at least three degrees of separation). Depending on how far removed you are from the source material will definitely influence how abstracted the work will become. Certainly we all have our own techniques and approaches that will abstract the final piece and we could abstract without the aid of filters, but having this understanding enhances the process.

“I realize that my work continues to evolve. It has to if I want to be an artist of any caliber. Sometimes it feels like it changes relatively slowly, but it has evolved. It has gone from a realistic representation to an abstraction of the inherent designs found in nature. I have found that by carefully choosing the filters I use, I am able to enhance those designs and push those abstractions even further.”

Jeff graduated from the University of Utah in 2004 with a Degree in Painting and Drawing and has been able to pursue this career full time. During this time, he has been showing his work throughout Utah and his work has been collected nationally. He has been able to take advantage of several opportunities to study with John Erickson and Gary E. Smith, both of which have helped diversify and enrich his work.

Jeff currently lives in Millcreek, Utah with his wife Julia and two children Remlee and Benton.