March Gallery
The Understory: Gail Gowrie-Praharenka
March Gallery - The Understory: Gail Gowrie-Praharenka
Gallery Exhibition Date: March 2 - March 28, 2026
Opening Reception: March 5, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM | The Carrot Community Arts Coffeehouse (9351 - 118 Ave)
You are warmly invited to the opening reception of The Understory: Gail Gowrie-Praharenka
”The artist is a humble performer an ordinary artisan that displays his talent in such a way as to achieve the audience’s attention to an aspect of life or nature to rediscover it; whether to remind or to redefine the idea. Art cannot be all things at once and in choosing one medium the limitations begin and so does this quest for what beauty is.
For me God is in display in life and nature and there is truth, beauty, and lessons to understand in reflecting an aspect of what God reveals. The act of painting demands looking at the three-dimensional world; our minds can fathom several forms of truth and beauty in seeing and now a selective process occurs in which the artist hones the experience to the visual art. The artist translates to the two-dimensional attempting to give expression to all forms of the overwhelming scene or ideas experienced. The artist now must fulfill in the painting a facet of the incredible range of ideas presented from the world and psych. The artist’s role is to fully reveal that truth and beauty in a succinct and powerful form of expression, honing the craft in color, line, light, design, style, and handling to perfect a visual statement about that scene and the idea found in that experience. It is a form of poetry or a visual song. When successful the viewer has a new vision; gained another perception and discernment of that object or scene that the style and expression provided. It’s a difficult task that is why art is hard. The artist has succeeded if it is made to look easy and has pushed the limits of the space, color, and idea so that the poetry is tangible, the expression felt psychologically.
So, I have chosen expressionism stylistically as I remain faithful to figure and the symbols of nature. Expressionism shares the human interpretation of that scene and its influence on our conscious. Color is fascinating to me as does light but light from color juxtapositions more than from natural realistic color choices.
Artists that have influenced me are myriad but are listed with the great colorist and expressionist of past times: my earliest and more faithful preceptor is Van Gogh and Goya, then Gauguin. For expressionist Emil Nolde and Kandinsky, colorists are Matisse, Melton Avery, Bonnard, Bernard Chaet (he is my hero), Klimt is amazing with his landscapes and flowers. Fred Williams is brilliant in his merger of landscape and abstract. Idris Murphy as a psychologist of color is a new inspiration to me. The subtle poetry of Morandi and Modigliani is incredible. Contemporary artists I admire are Matthew Wong, Andrew Cranston, Pam Eveyln, and Jo Bertini and a few of my favorites.”
