Jeffrey Reed Ballyglass Hill oil on canvas, 13 x 14 inches
Jeffrey Reed is a landscape painter showing at the Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia as well as the George Billis Gallery in New York. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania, MFA and The Maryland Institute College of Art, BFA. Many of these exquisite paintings were made during his recent fellowship and Residency at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle, County Mayo, Ireland. I’m particularly smitten by his sensitive handling of light and atmosphere within these delicate, lyrical compositions.
Sunlit Hill oil on paper, 10 x 9 1/2 inches
In a statement on the George Billis Gallery website, Jeffrey Reed states:
“When I am painting I feel a connection with the familiar and a sense of discovery at the same time. I tend to paint in locations multiple times. This allows me to focus on changes in the light and atmosphere. In many ways, I am more interested in the evocative than the literal nature of painting. Typically I will work outside for two to three hours on a painting until I get the essence of a particular light or atmosphere. I will then work on the painting back in the studio, developing the forms and trying to resolve the design.”
Big Cloud oil on panel, 9 1/2 x 10 inches
Evening Sky / Ballyglass oil on paper mounted on panel, 8 x 8 1/2 inches
Gray Hills / Shed oil on paper mounted on panel, 8 x 8 1/4 inches
October Farm oil on paper, 9 1/2 x 10 inches
Night Studio 2007 oil on canvas, 14 x 12 1/2 inches
Norwood oil on canvas, 14 x 12 1/2 inches
Bog Road Fields graphite, 10 x 11 1/2 inches
Painting Perceptions was started in 2009 by Larry Groff to promote the ideas, practice and experience of painters working from observation in a modernist vein from around the world through interviews, essays, videos and community. It later evolved to include imagination-based and abstract painting as well.
Jeff Reed is a wonderful painter-his deft touch describes a shimmering, quiet world. Jeff was a student of mine 1000 years ago when I started teaching at MICA. And though I’m not sure he remembers it, I had the pleasure of introducing him to the work of John Frederick Kensett, the American 19th century painter who I’ve always felt was a big influence on him.
Glad to see that Mr. Reed’s work is still “in focus.” I first came across him at the gallery where he is now showing. He’d just been to Ireland – perhaps for the first time – and had returned with the luminous canvases for which he is justly celebrated. I do, however, prefer his American paintings – not because I’m a patriotic crank, but because America is still a rather unknown world for people who are familiar with scholastic art history, which tends to exclude the living. It is heartening to see so many people returning to familiar landscapes with a fresh eye. I went to Vienna and painted there for a couple of weeks, but my work failed to supersede garden-variety, Sargent-influenced impressionism. I paint better pictures here because what I know means something to me. That appears to be true for Mr. Reed as well.
I would like to add that you are unlikely to lose money painting abroad. Occasionally expatriated Americans are a symptom, not only of wanderlust, but of economic adventurism as well. Though I haven’t had much luck with my Viennese paintings, most painters who go to Europe hit the jackpot. Ireland is a homelier sort of place, but because it’s “across the pond”, it has a sort of gravitas for Eurocentric collectors. I’m sure Mr. Reed does not intend to pander, but pictures of “glamorous, foreign lands” are considered easier on the eye than ours are. When I lived in Richmond, the idle, but opinionated class would often decry my work as being too familiar with poverty. For such people, artistic merit is dependent on the bottom line of its subject matter! If I weren’t a relatively nice person, I would have gone into a homeless-style seizure every time I heard such blather.
Brett’s comments got me thinking about the time a major commercial real estate developer (think big shopping malls) commissioned me to to do a painting of, as they put it “a bucolic country lane.” Oh well…
I’m an American living in Ireland…Interesting to hear your comments about how well foreign landscape subjects sell. I’m going to have to hunt me down a few “bucolic country lanes”…
And thanks for posting these pics. They’re fantastic!
beautiful paintings, really excellent. such a great economy to how they are painted–right on the line, not too much…thanks, yet again, Larry!
I am an impressionist painter resident in Ireland. travelling in America Spain and Australia helped me to appreciate the wonderful light in Ireland and paint it plein aer style. The light in every subject is thr whole key. The artist pick the subject and gives it his interpation.
A friend, Elise M., gave me your name. Her mom was an artist, from Philadephia. She admires your work and gives me good feedback on mine.
I like the subtle use of your colors.
BBA