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UTOPIA

JUNE 27, 2014
I have been working since May on work for my new show UTOPIA, which opens tomorrow in Oakland. I wanted to have a show of landscape paintings  that worked as a cohesive entity, as opposed to a group of random pictures. Time has been in short supply this summer and I needed to work on the show close to home. Luckily, I happen to live a  30 minute drive from what to me is the most beautiful and serene place on earth.
 
The Meeting Place

Limantour Beach, a part of  the Point Reyes National Seashore, is protected from development by law, and protected from the crowds by a winding and obscure access road. It is a unique ecosystem and a challenging place to paint with winds, tides, light  and fog in constant flux.

I tried to go there every day for 30 days. ( I must confess that I missed a few days due to other deadlines). Worikng around my illustration assignments, I went usually very early in the morning or late in the aftternoon when the wind dies enough to keep sand out of the painting. I did over 40 pieces, 16 were keepers and are in the show.

All but two of these  pieces were painted in the last week of May through  June 25, 2014. All were painted on location.   Each painting is an artifact that represents a struggle between my ambition for the piece, the limitations of my own skill,  and the meteorological conditions on any given day. 

Untrodden
All That Remains
Elisium
Ebb Tide
Primeval Wind
Primeval wind- detail

Love Letter
3 pelicans
fading light
Sand Castle
Hanging Gardens
East of the West
The more one looks at a specific place, the more one can see the beauty and complexity in the simplest things. One could spend one's entire life working on this spit of tidal land, trying to capture  a fraction of  the beauty and understated grandeur of Utopia. 
Sandpiper
I hope if you are in the area that you can come to the reception tomorrow night!
Robert Hunt: UTOPIA 
Reception 6/28 6-10 PM
Arte Verissima Gallery
4432 Piedmont Ave,
Oakland, CA 94611 
© 2024 Robert Hunt