ABOUT

Gregory Lang Gallery

1309 Main Street

St. Helena, California 94574

T. 707.804.9111

Email

Gallery Hours: Friday - Monday 11am - 5pm

Closed Tuesday & Wednesday

GREGORY LANG

I have been painting and sketching landscapes for most of my life. Born and raised in New England of the nineteen seventies, my earliest artwork reflected my environment. I was fascinated with old buildings and structures in their death throes; decaying factories, bridges, warehouses and colonial era forts. During this period of my early life I was greatly influenced by the museums and galleries of the region, especially by the post impressionists of the Hudson River Valley School of New York. In secondary school I began studying drawing and oil painting and during this time I developed a passion for abstract and expressionism. I would later pursue architecture and mechanical drafting and I eventually began merging my abstract imagery into my cityscapes.

A good deal of my inspiration today comes from contemporary architects. I enjoy following cutting edge and unique designs. In San Francisco we have a rapidly changing skyline with new towers coming to life in the South of Market area and it has been exciting to follow the construction. The Salesforce Tower which is nearing completion (formerly known as the Transbay Tower) is San Francisco's tallest structure at 1070 feet, and has drastically changed the skyline. It is also the second tallest building in California next to the Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles, which is thirty feet taller. The architect, Cesar Pelli has designed some of the worlds tallest structures and is known for his lightweight, delicate appearing, abstract designs. I think his work is a great contrast to the flat topped, blocky, nineteen seventies era buildings that occupy most of San Francisco's downtown. I am a big fan of British architect Norman Robert Foster, the pioneering architect behind some of the most aesthetically unique high tech buildings around the world. His firm Foster and Partners designed two tall, futuristic towers located at Mission and First Street named the Oceanwide Center. The grander of the two buildings, a solid looking, faceted glass tower will house a large six story, "urban room" of public open space and the shorter tower along Mission Street will contain the 169 room Waldorf Astoria Hotel. I have been exploring the construction sites and look forward to seeing these projects completed. It's a fun time to witness the changes going on in urban design. I love that the new generation of architects, engineers and scientists are turning to Biomimicry (drawing on nature in design) to create new, self sustaining properties that offer so much more than just space to work and live.

When it comes to appreciating art, I have eclectic taste and it's probably too long of a topic for me to cover in one paragraph, so this is something I plan to do in some other format eventually. But for now, just to name some of the better known artists that have influenced my work, I would say Albert Bierstadt, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, J. M. W. Turner, Edward Hopper, John William Waterhouse, William Merrit Post, Jackson Pollack, are some of the names that quickly come to mind. I am always searching to make my work unique yet familiar, as though the work relates directly to the viewer. I almost always see a vision of a painting in my minds eye before I begin working on a canvas. I sketch everything out in advance, everything is planned. I can't always achieve what I envision, but when I do it seems that these are the paintings that stand out the most.

"Metropolis", oil on canvas, 48" x 72", Lumen Gallery NYC, 2010

Metropolis, oil on canvas, 48" x 72", private collection, New York City

"Metropolis", 72" x 48", oil on canvas, private collection, New York City.

MY PAINTINGS

My cityscapes are composites from years of drafting, sketching and photographing the urban landscape. I love creating a composition and then recreating it using different techniques, methods and media. I particularly enjoy the abstract and impressionistic elements in my paintings as I feel those attributes allow the viewer the most freedom for interpretation. Some of my favorite paintings are those with unique surface qualities. I spend a great deal of time developing the texture of a painting so that it compliments the composition and palette.