Bill George, November AOM: Collections
Bill George is the Asheville Gallery of Art’s featured artist for the month of November. Visitors to the gallery will have the entire month to view his outstanding oil paintings. “Collections” will run from November 1st to November 30th, daily 11am to 6pm.
George’s paintings for this show compile a variety of subjects, done in a series form. He will be displaying 2-3 paintings of six different series he has completed. His “Realism/Naturalism” style portrays the subject as it actually appears in real life, but stops just short of looking like a photograph.
Bill has been interested in art from an early age, and worked as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator. He owned his own graphic design firm in New York City, and began painting in 1999 as a creative alternative to graphic design, which is digitally produced.
He works in a variety of mediums…pastel, watercolor, gouache, charcoal, pen & ink, etching, and fresco, however, his main focus remains on painting in oils. His process is an indirect method, in which the final effects in a painting are built up gradually by placing several layers of paint, one over the other. The upper and final layers modify but do not altogether conceal the lower layers.
One of his paintings from the Antique Car Series, “1957 Cadillac Eldorado” is a 30” X 40” oil-on-wood. “From my first visit to the Estes-Winn Antique Car Museum, I was immediately inspired to recreate these cars in paint with visual impact.” The vintage cars were unique, originally bold and beautifully styled, with many featuring luxurious to sporty details, becoming sleek in silhouette by the 1950s.
“Picasso”, from the Icon Series is a 30” X 24” oil-on-canvas. “This painting of Pablo Picasso is one of the “Icon” series of reimagined and abstracted celebrity portraits which I translate into color squares, usually with a definite color palette in mind. I like to find new ways to interpret a traditional genre such as portraiture to make it fresh and interesting.”
Visitors to the Asheville Gallery of Art will be able to view George’s show from November 1st through November 30th, in downtown Asheville, NC. Bill will be present for a special “Meet the Artist” event at the Asheville Gallery of Art on Friday, November 5th, from 5pm-8pm.
Nov. 1st to Nov. 30th, daily from 11am to 6pm.