Expressive Visions

First Tuesday ArtWalk:
* February 6, 5:30 – 8:30 pm

Exhibition Dates:
* January 12 – February 28

Expressive Visions curated by Desta Gallery an off-site exhibition at The Depot, Mill Valley.

An exhibition of work by Nicholas Coley and Jennifer Francis Fearon

Stop by and say hello on Tuesday, November 7, 5:30 pm- 7:30 pm, and enjoy Bryn’s amazing work!!

Nicholas Coley: Artist Statement

My painting has its roots in the fanatical ethos of a small school in the South of France, which made Cezanne its figurehead and had a very black and white view of art history. L’ecole Marchutz was a great place to get rooted in a concrete perspective of the fundamentals and a format of painting from real life.

Twenty years later, I still paint on location, finding myself in relation to a place and seeking unity with my surroundings. Only now I’ve exchanged the south of France for the open-air nut house that is San Francisco.

Coming home to the states and studying art was an ambiguous affair, where pluralism and general creativity replaced the achievements of a rooted tradition. Influences such as Wolf Kahn and other Bay Area figures allowed color theory to take a back seat to a generally looser love of all color and made more of a proclamation with bold brushwork and gestural lines.

I looked for compositions with energy and tried to impress the immediacy and rush of painting beside major thoroughfares and in parking lots.

More recently the matter of composition has played a prevalent role in my work, as I experiment with less conventional dynamics to arrange the urban and natural environments. For example, in my Market & Pearl Street series, I use the empty asphalt of the street to create a sparse and uncluttered majority of the canvas and forcing detail and subject matter to the periphery.

Along the edge I use the darkened, unresolved negative space of a row of cars as its own color field, creating reductive and raw elements of form and a chance to interpret color as broad fields, which unifies for a spontaneous, perceptual painting as one might see if blinded by sun.

I see no end to the possibilities of painting out in the world. Just stand there long enough until the light shimmers off the pavement, or until you see the comforting pattern of parking meters, the side view mirrors, the shadows under cars. If you love nature enough, you will see it even here, in our urban world.

Jennifer Francis Fearon, a long-time resident of Marin County, spent her childhood in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she developed a fascination for Asian art and design.

Following her MBA from the University of Houston, Fearon pursued a career in finance while raising her three children, including one with severe autism. The profound engagement and sustained attention required for an intimate relationship with her nonverbal child informs her approach to art.

Fearon’s artistic journey includes foundational studies at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco and continued mentorship with various accomplished artists around the country. In 2018, she shifted her art practice toward sustainable materials, leading her to explore Nihonga, a traditional Japanese painting style, and studied under Judith Kruger in Connecticut.

She appreciates Nihonga’s use of metallic leaves and translucent layers of mineral paints to capture the essence of nature in a luminous, magical way. The materials include natural minerals, soils, plant dyes, and metal leaves.

Her use of natural elements results in captivating artworks that celebrate nature’s patterns and light. Fearon’s work has been featured in juried exhibitions and galleries over the past decade.

“Drawing from my experience in western watercolor and oil painting, I expand on the traditional techniques and materials to create unique contemporary imagery I find making paint with my fingers from natural clay, plant dye, minerals and found materials to be a lovely ritual. I touch the materials from the earth to create imagery about deep connection to place. The process is tactile, meditative, and meaningful. It is slow art that includes earth, time and much of the maker’s hand in every piece.” Fearon expresses.