Jeff Gola paints with the ancient medium of egg tempera (colored pigments mixed in egg yolk). Charlie Hunter paints monochromatically with oil paint applied with squeegees and paper towels. They will have concurrent solo exhibitions at William Baczek Fine Arts in Northampton, Massachusetts, October 11 through November 11.

William Baczek explains, “They have been paired because they both paint contemporary landscapes in very different ways. They both paint ‘traditional Americana’ subjects but with a very modern eye. Gola will paint vistas, fields, farmland, but just as often embraces what [can be] seen as intrusions on the landscape—diners, neon signs, and somewhat run-down dwellings that are not typically considered beautiful or worth a second look. Charlie Hunter uses a spare pallet which gives his paintings both a dated look, like sepia-toned photographs, but with such a loose brush that they often border on abstract.”

Jeff Gola, On the Mohawk Trail, egg tempera, 11 x 14" 

Gola grew up on a farm in rural New Jersey and now lives in a New Jersey suburb of Philadelphia. Hunter grew up on a farm in New Hampshire and now lives in the once industrial city of Bellows Falls, Vermont.

Both will exhibit scenes primarily of New England—Hunter from his back yard and Gola from frequent trips to the region.

Hunter produced his small panels on site, mostly in one-sitting. “Painting from life,” he says, “you’ve got about three hours to get something down before the light changes entirely. If the components of a painting are composition, drawing, value, edge and chroma, I thought If I can eliminate one, why not? Eliminating color makes me pay more attention to drawing, value and edge. Sometimes, painters over rely on color to solve problems. The challenge is to make something both visually interesting and believable. How do you draw the viewer into the world convincingly?”

Jeff Gola, Main Street, Florence MA, egg tempera, 14 x 18"

An irony of his monochromatic, nearly abstract images is that they look, as Baczek observes, nearly photographic. Hunter’s father was a printer, turning photographs into printed images composed of ben-day dots that you can see when you enlarge a newspaper photograph, for example. Hunter suggests the dots by impressing the texture of paper towels into the paint. He then builds up transparent layers. 

He says, “I’m more interested in creating images that suggest reality. The paintings have small areas of detail that fool the eye into thinking there is detail throughout.”

His mark-making coalesces into a train car in Tanker, a 6-by-12-inch painting done in a railyard a few hundred yards from his home. The tanker provides the rectangular element that in many of his paintings is provided by his introduction of an architectural element in the composition. 

“Nominally, my work depicts what nature does to what man creates,” Hunter says. “By implication, as much as anything, my work bears witness to the cynical hollowing out of rural and small-town America.”

Charlie Hunter, Tanker, oil on muslin panel, 6 x12"

Gola embraces the time-consuming process of egg tempera. “Egg tempera painting has a long tradition and its special qualities are uniquely suited to capturing the properties of light and exploring its interplay on texture. I have found that the slow and careful process that tempera requires to achieve its depth and luminosity suits my temperament and vision. The gradual building of form and the patient exploration of every surface nuance that is involved in tempera painting, requires a meditative and reflective approach, one that I feel enables me to examine personal memories and feelings that these subjects evoke in me.”

He often travels throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New England looking for subjects. “When I go out looking for things,” he says, “it has a lot to do with finding those sorts of things that resonate with me. I like the idea of finding things new to me. I pretend I’m discovering something no one else has seen. Sometimes the response is instantaneous and at other times I let things percolate. I’m a slow thinker.”

Charlie Hunter, Cider House Rules, oil on muslin panel, 8 x 16"

Egg tempera is a luminous medium, especially suited to Gola’s desire “to not only capture light but to capture the air in between. I love the aspects light and low shadows of the early or late parts of the day, especially winter with its long, low shadows.”

On Mohawk Trail is one of those images he let percolate before painting it, the soft winter light giving form to the 1950s ornaments of a “trading post” along the trail in Massachusetts. —

William Baczek Gallery 36 Main Street Northampton, MA 01060 • (413) 587-9880   www.wbfinearts.com 

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