Brian Shafford:

Careful looking, curiosity and an abiding sense of adventure inspire Brian Shafford's recent paintings. Layer upon layer of water-based paint are applied to thin sheets of aluminum. This provides a textured luminosity to the paintings; the pigments seem to float on a surface of water.

"Fortuitous accidents" are a significant aspect of Shafford's painting. Chance and intent intersect with unexpected dynamics, illuminating new possibilities for the interpretation and expression of experience and imagination.

For Shafford the act of painting is a way to better understand and experience the essential nature of being alive at a given moment. With a Zen-like sensibility he will often narrow down his vision to one blade of grass, a single shape, a meandering line, or a poignant emotion, focusing his palette on a few colors. Increasingly abstract the paintings are not ultimately about the portrayal of a landscape or a narrative of an event but rather speak to a core quietness of being. As such they offer the opportunity to pause, reflect and breath deeply with gratitude.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

 

Brian Shafford has always been drawn to pristine, open spaces.

Born and raised in Portland, Oregon he attended the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. Trained in wildlife and fisheries biology he spent many years working in wild, remote regions of Alaska. It was here in the back woods, camping by the rivers, lakes and oceans, and studying flora and fauna that an abiding interest in nature evolved and how all life form a whole, from the microscopic to the universal.

In 1989 Brian hiked the entire distance of the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine. It was an image encountered during this hike from a mountaintop in Virginia of undulating mountains in infinite shades and tones of blues that heralded the beginning of his life as a painter. He began painting in 1993 when he was 47 years old. Other than two watercolor lessons with a Benedictine nun he is essentially self-taught. His life as an artist is analogous to that of an explorer: seeking new territory, pushing boundaries, taking risks and meeting new challenges with a willingness to be continually surprised.

Since the late 1990s Brian has lived in the green hills of rural, southern Vermont quietly pursuing his life as a painter. Working exclusively with ground pigments he creates his own casein/watercolor/ acrylic paint. The genesis for his paintings spring from sources as diverse as his daughter's journey to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, the inauguration of Barack Obama, theoretical physics, mythology, the ascent of an elevator, or an erupting volcano. Simple, evocative, with a Zen-like elegance, his work expresses a way of seeing that distills and abstracts experience into breathing, shimmering, and grace infused movement.

 

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