Show Preview | InSight Gallery's Annual Fall Gallery Show

Fredericksburg, TX
September 6-23, 2013

Mark Haworth, Primrose Path, oil, 24 x 30.

This story was featured in the September 2013 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art September 2013 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story!

Texas-based painter George Hallmark, who recently turned 64, gently understates the obvious when he says with a smile: “I think the older you get as an artist, you ought to get a little better.” For artists who are already top-tier, the continual self-challenge to go beyond what they’ve done before is reason for excitement among viewers and collectors. The Annual Fall Gallery Show at InSight Gallery in Fredericksburg, TX, opening Friday, September 6, shines a spotlight on the newest work—and in Hallmark’s paradigm, the best so far—by the gallery’s roster of exceptional artists.

Jeffrey Merrill, Savannah, oil 12 x 9.

Featuring some 60 painters and sculptors, the show includes such internationally acclaimed names as Mian Situ, Roy Andersen, Walt Gonske, John Coleman, Scott Christensen, and Quang Ho. An artists’ reception takes place on September 6 from 6 to 8 p.m., and the show runs through September 23. “Whether you connect with the impressionistic work of master painter C.W. Mundy, the beautifully composed Texas landscapes rendered by Robert Pummill, or the tonal work of Fredericksburg’s very own  Nancy Bush, the Fall Gallery Show will have something for you,” notes gallery co-owner Meredith Plesko.

A special focus at this fall’s exhibition are watercolor and oil paintings by John Fawcett of northern Colorado. With as many as eight new pieces in the show, Fawcett presents his vision of both the Old and New West in engaging detail. ROCKY RESPITE, for example, depicts current-day pack guides resting their horses by a rocky stream. The riders are modeled after neighbors near the artist’s ranch north of Steamboat Springs, and the painting is set in the landscape he calls home. POWER OF THE HORSE MASK, on the other hand, reaches back to an earlier time. The image is based on the Plains Indian tradition of imbuing warriors’ horses with desired qualities, such as lightning-fast speed, through the power of painted masks.

John Fawcett, Rocky Respite, oil, 24 x 30.

Hallmark is known for capturing architectural elements, especially age-worn stone or adobe houses and walls of Mexico and the old Southwest, in his widely collected work. One such adobe wall provides the backdrop for the imagined story behind INVITATION ONLY, in which a laden burro stands dejectedly in front of a closed wooden gate. “I have always had a tender spot for the underdog, and this little fellow has just had the gate closed in his face,” Hallmark explains. “Hopefully his owner will return in a few short moments to accompany him home.”

Mark Haworth, based in Fredericksburg, is among the artists at InSight whose considerable gifts are focused on rendering the landscape in its diversity of terrain, weather, seasons, and moods. PRIMROSE PATH was inspired by a misty spring morning in the Texas Hill Country, when the painter came across a carpet of pink wildflowers under a majestic pecan. Lately he has also enjoyed painting Utah’s canyonlands and the mountainous high desert near Big Bend. “I have a lot of ideas,” he says, and then adds what the other gallery artists might just as easily say: “You’ll just have to come to the show to see!” —Gussie Fauntleroy

contact information
830.997.9920
 www.insightgallery.com

Featured in the September 2013 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art September 2013 print issue or digital download
Or subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss a story!