Barnaby Fitzgerald

Isadora

2014

“Barnaby Fitzgerald’s outrageously gorgeous paintings are a guilty pleasure - yet the guilt is unnecessary, for they do not cloy or fatten us. They are as intellectually challenging ...

The themes visited in this show stem from a desire to extend the vocabulary of my painting while forming a metaphor for the chaos of contemporary life. The title, Escalade, has differing and complimentary functions in English and French. Continuing to paint, over a lengthening career, the medium poses more questions than answers. The title is a reference to my attempt to overcome these difficulties through the expansion of my painting language. The title also refers to the escalation of crises in the world at large. It is the larger picture in which I am a small person trying to make my way. In a concrete sense, the title also refers to a strategy I have taken in a number of these paintings. That is, to re-examine very small paintings...

Helene and Eric Bess are a team who have been collaborating for over 20 years. Both are professional artists with extensive experience in both the commercial and fine art fields. They presently work out of their studio in Florida, creating original art for gallery display, fine art crafts and taking commissions for murals & embellishments. Helene was born in Canada in 1949. She studied art in Europe as a young adult and attended Phoenix Pratt School of Design in New York and St. Petersburg Community College in Florida. She worked for advertising agencies and freelance art projects such as theater design and t-shirt designs for several companies. She owned and operated an art studio (“Artistic Endeavors”) in Melbourne, Fl. for five years. She started doing murals and embellishments (residential and commercial) from 1992 till present. She considers her early life in Europe the major source of her artistic influence as well as the works of Modigliani. Eric was born in Missouri in 1950. He started drawing literally as an infant and has never stopped. He was taking commissions for book covers & wall designs in his teens and studied art at Auburn University and The University of Alabama. He taught art in public schools in Alabama in the ‘70s. He worked as art director at Huntsville Educational Television for 6 years, as art director at Southern Sportswear in Daytona for 9 years, at Creative Signs & Designs in Flagler, Fl. for 6 years, and as a freelance artist and co-owner (with his wife Helene) of “BessStudio” (formerly “Artistic Innovations Inc.”) since 1998. His artistic influences include Michelangelo, Vermeer, Blake, Maxfield Parish...