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Portrait by Colby Rabon
Bill George paints everyday objects that would normally go unnoticed, and certainly aesthetically unappreciated. He transforms them from obscurity to a place of heightened importance and beauty, through meticulous painting-from-life realism that honors the great Masters, including Baroque painters like Rembrandt and Caravaggio.
But George’s artistic choices also sometimes reveal a keen tendency toward Pop Art sensibility. After all, this is an artist who attended the High School of Art & Design and The Art Students League in New York before opening his own successful graphic-arts firm on high-profile Madison Avenue. Ten years ago, tired of northern winters, he retired to Asheville and began studying at the now-defunct Fine Arts League of the Carolinas (founded by world-renowned fresco artist and realist painter Benjamin F. Long, IV). For five years, George learned 17th-century techniques of drawing, painting, sculpting, and fresco.
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His graphic-arts background is insinuated in his expressive portraits of Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis — and in his boldly colorful paintings of classic muscle cars and rusting pickup trucks. His series of interpreted figurative paintings, an homage to classic luminaries including Vermeer, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and Frederic Leighton, takes off in a totally different direction. Nevertheless, a subtle nod to mod is implied, thanks to his decision to paint those gorgeous larger-than-life works on functional hollow-core doors — the ordinary kind sold at Home Depot.
In another series, Rock, Paper, Scissors, George explored the potential outcomes of that age-old hand game. He primarily paints with traditional oils on canvas or wood, and makes and sells prints on aluminum of many of his originals.
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“I am a little unusual,” George acknowledges. “Most artists have a style, subject matter, and a certain kind of painting and stay with it. I don’t fall into that category. Now I’m doing semi-abstract paintings from life with these pieces of curled paper left over from the Rock, Paper, Scissors series. I took a strip of it and ran it along my desk, and it curled up. I started thinking, ‘What can I do with these?’” That led to his current Paper Curl series of paintings, which elevates mundane debris — destined for the trash bin — to the level of fine art. He points out that even painting a still life can be an aspect of painting from life (more commonly thought of as figurative work with live models, or landscapes painted in nature).
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“You learn much more doing still life from life, versus painting from photographs,” George explains. “The light will be one way, and then all of a sudden it all changes. I have my easel set up with a canvas and a chair in one spot. I rearrange the [paper] curls, then go back to my chair to see how it looks. That can take hours until I get the lighting where I want it and can proceed.”
But, he predicts, he’ll soon be off on another creative trajectory. “I just can’t stay in one groove; I have to constantly keep it interesting for myself.”
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Bill George, Asheville. The artist’s still lifes and other paintings are represented by Asheville Gallery of Art (82 Patton Ave., ashevillegallery-of-art.com). For more information about George’s art doors, visit billgeorge.net.