Abstractions
On exhibit at Central Library, January – Feb. 2017
Bryan Jernigan’s process has always been about exploration. It’s not surprising to those who know him that his breadth of experience ranges from traditional landscapes to figures and to non-representational abstraction. “I’ve always said I’m less of a painter and more of an experimenter.”
Most recently, his process cycles between small, traditional pastel landscapes and large nonrepresentational paintings. “Once I complete a set of landscapes in pastel that take their own kind of concentration, the last thing I want to do is another one. So I cycle into large abstracts that are just as challenging, but in a different way to the landscapes. I think it keeps my work in both areas fresher.”
While Jernigan is an abstractionist at heart, most recently he has been trying to successfully bridge the gap between abstract and representational in both his landscapes as well as some figurative work. He uses acrylics in treatments of simple subjects in nature. Most recently, he has been focusing on trees and their surrounding landscapes using bold strokes and color in both painterly and palette knife techniques. As with human beings, every tree is unique and their surroundings are equally different. Joining styles together allows him to communicate landscapes in a new way with both whimsy and mystery. While he adheres to art’s founding principles – line, shape, form, space, and value – he purposefully leaves his imagery simplistic because color is the star. Jernigan’s work is influenced by the Fauvists and by contemporary artists including Wolf Kahn,
Angus Wilson and William Wray.
Jernigan teaches abstract painting for the Art League of Alexandria and recently won a grant from the City of Alexandria to create 50 different pastel landscapes. His work is held in private and corporate collections in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Morocco, Brazil and Japan. Jernigan, who has a Master of Arts degree, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and raised in Oklahoma before moving to metropolitan Washington, DC. more than 25 years ago.
Want to buy something you see on our walls? Artists contribute 20% of sales made during their exhibit to the Friends of the Arlington County Public Library, to help support Library programming.
