In Gregory Stocks’ current exhibit of works at the Eccles Art Center in Ogden, a small plein air study features a menagerie of barns, sheds and lean-tos facing multiple points of the compass and forming a complex structure of interlocking planes. Its title, “Mixing It Up,” aptly describes what Stocks has done for this exhibit, which fills both floors of the Eccles Mansion.

Stocks, who is represented locally by A Gallery, is well known for his colorful landscapes full of lively brushstrokes and juicy accents. His large paintings share an easily recognizable affinity: trees, sky, water, light become pictorial elements that the artist moves around the canvas to create landscapes that attempt to speak of the idea of place and moment and emotion rather than any specific locale. While sharing some of the artistic genes of these larger works — the palette is still vibrant, the brushes still applied with gusto — the small plein air studies on exhibit allow us to see the artist confronted by specific locales. Painted in the nearby Ogden Valley, these paintings feel more compact, more concrete, highlighting in turn the airy idealization of Stocks’ larger works. To mix up the visuals even further, Stocks is also exhibiting over a dozen figure studies, works full of crisp lines and broad strokes of deft shading that carve the figure into the white space without weighing it down.

The exhibit is up through the month of September. This past week the Ogden Standard Examiner had a look. Read their article here:

9/4 Landscape artist shows another side of his work
http://go.standard.net/story/landscape-artist-shows-another-side-of-his-work

OTHER MIXED MEDIA ARTICLES

9/4 Expansive ‘Mexico Then & Now’ exhibit opens
http://go.standard.net/story/expansive-mexico-then-now-exhibit-opens-this-weekend

9/6 Islamic exhibit at BYU aids understanding
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765602441/Islamic-exhibit-at-BYU-aids-understanding.html

9/6 Arnold Friberg pencil sketches on display for one night
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865561842/Arnold-Friberg-pencil-sketches-on-display-for-one-night.html

9/6 Public art: The power of one percent. Setting aside government cash for art pays off, officials say.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment/54841738-81/art-public-building-state.html.csp

9/9 Moroni sculptor’s life to be celebrated in SLC
http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/09/07/moroni-sculptors-life-be-celebrated-slc

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UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.