Mark your calendars now! We are preparing for our next exhibit, “Always Coming Home”, new paintings by local artist, John Wooldridge. This exhibit marks Wooldridge’s forth solo exhibit at Cantrell Gallery. Join us for the opening night celebration on Friday, September 9, 6-8:00. The reception will be a great opportunity to meet the artist while viewing his latest works.
Artist Statement for “Always Coming Home”
“This grouping of paintings represents the longing for roots sunk deep into the soil; memories and places lost to time. As such, it is an idealization of the place where I feel I belong: the Ozarks.
I am driven by the beauty of nature and the place of humans within it. I have a predilection for those themes with which I am most familiar and which were meaningful to me in my childhood. Streams, rivers and bodies of water hold a particular fascination as do small towns and the fading remnants of our civilization, so quickly reclaimed by the land.
One of my primary goals is to engage the viewer with their own personal narrative. By using sparse, preferential detailing and mood invoking limited palettes, I seek to provide the viewer with a simple context and framework upon which they can flesh out detail drawn from their own experiences. In this manner, the connection is deep and personal and beyond that which could be accomplished by verbosity of detail.
Bio
John Wooldridge is a native Arkansan with deep roots in the Ozark Mountains. He spent many hours of his formative years drawing and roaming on his family’s 200 acre cattle farm. Wooldridge indulged a love of art and a desire to learn to paint as a very young teen by taking his only lessons in a local atelier-like setting. Aside from these lessons and the odd workshop now and then, he is self-taught. After receiving a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arkansas, Wooldridge moved his young family to the suburbs of Washington D.C. to pursue a career with NASA. He designed, built, and operated systems in orbit around Earth and on the surface of Mars.
If you can’t make it the evening of the opening, or if you need another look at the show, plan on coming by while it’s up through October 29. Gallery hours are Monday – Saturday, 10-5:00
-Cindy, Clarke & Helen