Biographical Information:
I was born in Yosemite National Park in 1952 and fortunate as a young boy to live in this “Valley of the Giants” with its gleaming cliffs and green meadows. My dad, Glenn Gallison, was a park ranger. He helped me appreciate the beauty of this natural world and this experience stayed with me all my life.
After graduating from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1977 I did a variety of commercial work in Los Angeles that appeared in national magazines and advertisements. While working as an illustrator, and later as an art director during my married years raising a family, I always found time to paint outdoors. I particularly enjoyed hiking and painting in the high Alpine country of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
When I retired from my career in commercial art, I was eager to begin a new venture as a fine art painter devoting my time painting nature’s beauty and sharing these experiences with others. I now participate with a number of Plein-air painting groups in Pasadena and surrounding areas.
Artist Statement:
I am primarily an oil-landscape painter who enjoys doing plain-air as well as studio work. I aways try to approach my work with two important aspects of painting. One, does it catch the viewer’s eye at first glance, and second, once the viewer comes in for a closer look will it make an impression that will endure. That impression comes from the right balance of the painting’s color, its composition, use of light and darks and overall style. As an illustrator for many years, I enjoyed realism’s appeal simply for what it communicated and not to be too concerned of its quality.
Now, as a fine art painter, I want that realism to be done very much in light of its quality. I don’t feel that realism has to contain the same detail of a photograph. Detail by itself can make a painting appear stiff and over worked. I discovered that the looser impressionistic style of painting outdoors was a better method of painting than simply copying from a photograph. My goal is to do more with less paint and apply color more effectively in a spontaneous way.
