Art Talk With Jim McVicker at the MGMA

TWENTY FIVE PAINTINGS OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY ARTISTS TWENTY FIVE WORKS BY THE ARTISTS

July 19th through September 3rd

From 1989 to1991 Jim McVicker worked on a series of paintings of local artists in their studios. He painted 30 in all which culminated in an exhibition at the HAC’s Humboldt Cultural Center on 1st Street in Eureka. A couple years ago he started thinking about those works and how much he enjoyed the whole process of painting them and decided to revisit the idea. This exhibition focuses on artists in their studios as well as artists at work on location around Humboldt County alongside artwork by the artists Jim captured in his portraiture.

“All the artist outdoors were working on landscape paintings, as I tried to capture as they worked. In the studios some artists worked as I painted, others sat while we talked and I painted. I try not to have a preconceived idea about what or how the work will be, but to approach each work and situation clear and open to how I’m seeing and responding at the time. I find it exciting and challenging to work in a way that is so different from the control one would have in their own studio. It’s been very gratifying to paint these works and spend time with all these artists.”