Gallery One’s new show, “Copy Cats,” will run through Nov. 4 at the gallery in Ocean View.
“‘A copycat is a person or entity that imitates or duplicates the actions or products of another without originality or creativity. Sounds insulting, and it is,” gallery representatives said. “The term is often used to describe plagiarism, imitation or uninspired copying. But in the world of art, copying can be a bit different. In the Renaissance, copying was integral to the artistic learning process, and in the 20th century movements like Pop Art openly borrowed from popular culture and existing imagery.”
This month, the artists of Gallery One are creating an “homage” to some inspirational artists’ work. Homage is defined as “a respectful imitation or tribute to another artist’s work, acknowledging the original source and honoring its influence.”
In “Autumn Evening. Trail in the Woods” in oil, Ed Lewandowski pays respect to Isaac Ilyich Levitan, a Russian Impressionist painter from the late 1800s, who advanced the genre of the “mood landscape,” which emphasizes the emotional atmosphere or feeling of a scene, rather than its precise geographical or realistic details.
“I thought this painting was a great fit for me, since I often aim to evoke a specific mood, such as tranquility, melancholy, awe or nostalgia in my artwork as well.”
In “Monet’s Inspiration,” artist Cindy Beyer was inspired by Claude Monet’s waterlilies, and “Street in Italy,” an acrylic painting by Lesley McCaskill, was inspired by John Singer Sargent, an artist who loved the figure and painted from life with elegant looseness. As McCaskill painted, she updated the Italian landscape with memories of her own time in Italy.
Artist Mary Bode Byrd’s mixed-media painting “Say It isn’t So” was inspired by Louis Wane, a British artist in the 19th century. He created large-eyed cats and anthropomorphic (humanlike) staging. Michelle Marshall’s acrylic painting “Pinball Triad” is an homage to Wayne Thiebaud, an American Pop Art artist known for his colorful works depicting commonplace objects.
The term “copycat” can be taken quite literally artistically, too, as artist Laura Hickman does in her pastel “Five Charlies.”
“My senior year of college, we bought Charlie Chaplin masks and dressed alike in our class blazers and painter’s pants. The result was a copycat of sorts. We also each had the sad face of friends not wanting to part.”
In “Basic Training,” artist Joyce Condry’s copycats are actually birds, while artist Laurie Fields copies the techniques of a favorite artist in her piece “Cross Hatch,” in oil/graphite.
Dale Sheldon completes the theme with “Bella and Her Pillow,” in acrylic. Bella, a “mackerel tabby,” sits by a pillow “copying” two possible ancestors who are dressed in crowns and jewels.
Gallery One is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
link