Description
53rd Annual Mark Twain Library Art Show
Artist’s Bio:
Artist Background
A native New Yorker, Gwen Meyerson lives and paints in Queens. Gwen studied with prominent representational painters including Charles Cajori, Harold Bruder, and Louis Finkelstein at Queens College where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with Art Department Honors. She spent a semester in London studying at Sir John Cass School of Art. After completing her undergraduate studies, she attended the New York Studio School, located in Greenwich Village. These 5 years of intensive life studies gave her a solid foundation in representational art. To explore new ideas, Gwen went on to postgraduate studies at Florida State University. There, she received her MFA in painting after studying with the abstract color field painter Trevor Bell. Her years in Florida opened her up to increased abstraction as she was exposed to avant-garde influences and produced some huge 8 to 10 foot textural figure abstractions on canvas.
Gwen paints the familiar urban environment with its inhabitants. Sometimes she focuses on the buildings, sometimes the passersby, but she’s interested in how both work together. In particular she is drawn to the ever cool gentrified neighborhoods of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan. Narrow cobblestone streets of an earlier day, red brick low rise buildings with fire escapes, bustling cafes full of hipsters, strolling Saturday shoppers … these are some of the subjects that whet her painting appetite. Initially Gwen takes dozens of photos which are largely unused until she finds something intriguing. After a detailed canvas sketch, she infuses the canvas with layers of color. Gwen works in both oils and acrylics. Her vibrant color palette is a nod to the masters she respects, which include Matisse and Bonnard. Her canvases are an homage to her love of the city.
