James Chronister: Only Sunrises

Artist Reception | Saturday, March 5, 2022 | 4-7 pm

Eleanor Harwood Gallery is thrilled to present their sixth solo show with James Chronister.

James Chronister has produced a visual language that oscillates between personal and universal ideas of landscape and place. Based on his own photographs of his native state of Montana, Chronister renders images using thinned black oil paint on a white or neutral colored ground, conveying space and depth. He technique utilizes mark making akin to an intaglio print. In these recent works, the white ground becomes highlights, the opaque passages become shadows and cross hatching become mid tones. Unassuming but vastly complex in their subtlety, these scenes of nature depict an unseen environment that is both rich and rewarding of investigation.

The works in Only Sunrises were painted between 2019 and 2021. The images are based on his own photos of the forests in his native state of Montana. He and his wife relocated to Montana in 2020 after 18 years in San Francisco.

Chronister is interested in examining one's sense of perception and experience within what is referred to as wilderness or landscape. Additionally, music often plays a central role in his studio practice, providing an emotional scaffolding for the paintings. The title Only Sunrises comes from the song "No More Time" by the Russian band Motorama. To him, the title refers to personal and universal notions of self, perception, location and the passage of days into nights and back into days.

eleanorharwood.com