John Whalley: In New Light - Hardcover

Whalley, John

9780978658809: John Whalley: In New Light

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0978658809 ISBN 13: 9780978658809

Publisher: John Whalley Studio, 2006

"In New Light" offers an intimate look at the work of American realist John Whalley, spanning the last three decades of the artist's career. Best known for his exquisitely detailed graphite drawings and still-life paintings, Whalley forms his subtle compositions from the humble objects and the people that he has encountered during his years in in Pennsylvania and in Maine, where he now makes his home. In this richly printed 167-page volume of 50 full color and 60 black and white reproductions, Whalley's graphite drawings and his oil, egg tempera and watercolor paintings are arranged chronologically, revealing the artist's maturing vision and persistent themes that flow throughout his work. The book contains the rewarding feature of offering the viewer many close ups of these intricate and marvelously textured artworks. The artist finds great pleasure in taking common, often discarded objects, and placing them in a setting which reveals their hidden beauty to the viewer.

"In New Light" was published in 2006 and accompanied the exhibition by the same name seen first at Greenhut Galleries of Portland, Maine, before traveling to the Coral Springs Museum of Art in Florida. In his Preface to the book, lent from a 2001 solo retrospective exhibition of Whalleys work at the Georgia Museum of Art entitled "John Whalley - American Realist", Director William Underwood Eiland states, "although Whalley's technique argues for a distance, a reserve toward his drawings and paintings, once drawn in, the viewer enters a world where the ordinary whispers its own unique beauty." In the book's Forward, Ralph Sessions of Spanierman Gallery of New York describes Whalley's paintings and drawings as "fresh, bold work, direct and honest renderings of familiar objects from the natural and man-made worlds...John investigates an everyday reality that most of us take for granted. His concentrated focus brings it to our attention, confronts us with its immediacy."

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap:

John Whalley is not much given to theorizing or analyzing his art. Rather, he is happier describing his working methods or his reactions to objects or people he uses for his images. He responds to what he describes as the "beauty that speaks softly," and because he is in the realist tradition, or what has today become known, more particularly, as "classical realism," painterly fillips are generally absent from his work. His is an artistry dependent on highly skilled technique: drawing honed by his study of illustration; a palette cued by his perceptions of atmospheric or temporal changes in light; and a sensitivity to the objects or people he portrays that requires faithful rendering of their appearance. It may be that the wellspring of Whalley's attraction to the humble in his art finds a similar outlet in his direct participation in humanitarian causes on behalf of children and the poor and hungry.

- From the Preface "John Whalley - American Realist" By Dr. William Underwood Eiland

Back Inside-Flap:

Photograph of the Artist)

John Whalley was born in Brooklyn, New York, and currently makes his home in the Damariscotta Mills of Newcastle, Maine. He received his B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1976. Throughout the last thirty years Whalley's drawings and paintings have been exhibited widely across the United States, and his work was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art in 2001 entitled, John Whalley - American Realist". He is represented by Spanierman Gallery of New York and Greeenhut Galleries of Portland Maine.

Published by

John Whalley Studio P.O. Box 341 Damariscotta, ME 04543

Contact: info@johnwhalley.com Tel: 207-563-2005

About the Author:

John Whalley was born in 1954 in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in the wooded hills and lakes of the Hudson Valley. He was strongly influenced by both his artist mother, a graduate of Pratt Institute, and his engineer father, who was himself a fine painter and exacting craftsman. From his youngest years pencils, charcoal, brushes and oil paints were a familiar presence in his house, and he completed his first oil paintings when he was just 8 years old. Graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1976, Whalley began a multi-faceted career that would take him from the Boston area where his artwork was published by Atlantic Monthly, Little Brown and Houghton Mifflin, to upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, and on through a period of humanitarian work with children in Central and South America. He is now a full-time resident of mid-coast Maine.

Whalley has exhibited widely across the U.S. and his work is included in many prominent collections. Among the museums where he has shown are the The Georgia Museum of Art, the Coral Springs Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Art, Tampa and Dedland Museums of Art in Florida, The Sheldon Swope Museum of Art and the Krannert Gallery of Purdue University in Indiana, The Rhode Island School of Design Gallery and the DeCordova Museum and Rose Art Museum (of Brandeis University) in Massachusetts. His work is represented by the prestigious Spanierman Gallery of New York as well as Greenhut Galleries of Portland, Maine.

In the words of Dr. William Eiland, Director of the Georgia Museum of Art, "It may be that the wellspring of Whalley's attraction to the humble in his art finds a similar outlet in his direct participation in humanitarian causes on behalf of children and the poor and hungry." In the early 80's the artist developed and taught in a therapeutic program in tthe arts for 50 at-risk children at a children's home in northern Pennsylvania while developing his own work on the home's farm setting. Then in the late 80's, Whalley became a volunteer art consultant for an organization working among abused and abandoned children - first in Florida, and then in El Salvador, Colombia - and more recently at the New Horizons Youth Ranch in Central Brazil where Whalley, along with his two sons, spent many years. He now makes his home and studio in midcoast Maine.

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