Gary Long
Gary Long attended Birmingham College of Art in his hometown after
which he spent two years working as an illustrator in Vancouver,
Canada. On returning to the U.K., Gary worked as a successful
illustrator on numerous national and international accounts in
publishing and advertising. He is an artist member of the Society
of Illustrators in New York where he has exhibited, and he is
a lecturer at Falmouth College of Art. He lives and works in St.
Ives and has recently been commissioned to supply original works
of art to Cunard’s new liner, the Queen Mary II for its luxury
state rooms. Gary has for many years, in his role as an illustrator, been concerned
with the making of images. Now a painter with a figurative base
he is still involved with images; images that speak of the atmosphere
of the coast, the sea, the sky and the weather. Yet there is a
crucial difference, for the images alone do not have our exclusive
attention. The formal qualities of the work; the colour, line,
edge, texture and the paint itself now compete equally to our
senses. We are made aware of the surface of the work, with the
emphasis to its flatness, giving a real and actual quality, more
‘object’ like than simply a depiction of illusion and imitation.
Working from memory and intuition, Gary Long has discovered in
his pushing and dragging of paint his true subject and one that
is ultimately the very essence and ‘stuff’ of painting. Stephen Dove.
The Great Atlantic Galleries
5 Bank Square, St Just-in-Penwith, Cornwall TR19 7HH
International Tel: 44 1736 788911/786016 (within the UK: 01736
788911/786016)
e-mail: gallery@greatatlantic.co.uk