Painter, art historian, and author John Seed was was kind enough to offer a few words in response to my current show, happy to share them with you below—Thank you very much, John. A pleasure to call you a friend, and i look forward to continuing our long-running conversation about painting for many more years. As a painter, one of the most moving experiences i’ve had is simply knowing that attentive observers of paintings are still out there, that we’re not all illiterate that way yet — here’s to the ideal reader or viewer for all of you out there who continue trying to communicate in images — whether painted, written, musical or otherwise… a thing not yet gone from this world.
“Italian Tondo” (Sundown with Flowers), 12” round, 2022-23, available
Gage Opdenbrouw: Freshness
“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”– Henri Matisse
After spending some time looking over the recent paintings that Gage Opdenbrouw is showing at Horse and Plow I started feeling rather jealous. Gage’s paintings have an incredible air of freshness that I have never been able to achieve in my own work. Whether he is painting flowers, shorelines or burned out buildings there is an economy in his brushwork that just blows my mind. Gage has told me that one of his interests has always been to paint the atmosphere around things, and wow does he deliver. When he takes you outside in his work, you are there and his flowers create zones of moisture and perfume on canvas. There is some magic in these paintings.
How Gage has arrived at this place in his work—suggesting so much with dots and dashes of sensuous oil paint—is something only he knows but the right mix of experience, hard work and recent happiness probably have something to do with it. Gage’s work extends both the concerns of French painting, particularly Cezanne’s “petit sensation,” and the hard won painterliness of Bay Area Figuration. There is a modesty about the work that keeps those connections in the background, but they are very much there. Living in Sonoma has been great for Gage’s painting and it shows: it was definitely time to leave Oakland behind.
The last thing I would like to say is that these are obviously “sipping” paintings that will get even better with a glass of wine. Seeing them in a tasting room is perfect. I would recommend a crisp Chardonnay with hints of oak and apple, but that is just me. For the adventurous, there is always Pinot Blanc.
- John Seed
“Black Spring Bouquet”, oil on panel, 11”x14”, 2024, available
“A Riot of Pink and Green Against the Black” (Piles), oil on canvas, 24”x36”, 2020-2023, available