Ron Gianola - Windows, Retreats & Passages

Ron Gianola’s work is a unique artistic vision within a contemporary style, sensitive to the effects of light expressed through color. “A composition usually inspires me by the combination of colors, almost like a musical chord, as well as the larger shapes or masses and their relation,” says Gianola, “It's basically the natural world as the start of a composition. Nature is the source, but the art is Nature seen through the artist's temperament or psyche.”

The artist uses infinite varieties of natural color and tone in his paintings. He tries to vary a large area of color in a subtle gradation from side to side or top to bottom. He also layers a veil of color over another dry area or into a wet area. These colors can be sympathetic in hue or value or saturation, depending on the effect. Other times the artist uses several colors in the brush and vary the pressure just so to get unique, expressive passages. He also does a lot of scraping with the palette knife, for changes as well as effects and paint application.

Gianola balances realism with abstraction, using a classic oil painted surface. “My technique generally is to work in oil or acrylic initially from Nature with brushes, finishing in the studio using a palette knife to apply veils of color,” says the artist,”This allows me to capture the initial impression from the scene itself, as well as creatively improvising afterwards. Technique and innovation should be in the service of transformation and vision.”

Since 2002, Gianola’s work has consisted of abstractions of various interiors, at times combined with landscape elements. Some are called “Passage” as they are a passage from the exterior to the interior, in the painting and in the artist. The interiors of his studio are an obvious reference to the interior creative life of the artist, as are the various female figures, all called Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul, heart, or spirit. The various still life subjects in the interiors are an homage to countless classic paintings. The interior/landscape motif is another symbol representing the natural versus man-made worlds, inside versus outside, etc. Rather than depict the specific, Gianola works in a more personal, poetic manner using a harmony of forms from observed, created, and remembered sources in their own beautiful color universe. He paints with enough content that the mind and imagination are pleased and with enough literal image that the eye is also satisfied.

“Hopefully, my art conveys a sense of balance and beauty in an increasingly chaotic world,” says the artist. Ron Gianola works from a home and studio in Honor, Michigan. He can be reached at rgianola@coslink.net or 231-325-2765. A full biography is available upon request.

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