RIVER by Michael C. Armour
From January 12 to March 14, we are showing work by Michael C. Armour, whose studio is housed in the upper level of the Silo118 building on Gray Avenue. A multitalented artist and writer, Armour has maintained his studio here in the Funk Zone for the past 13 years.
This is Armour's first solo show in nearly 2 years, and we are pleased to present a collection of oil paintings and works on paper which encompass a number of themes central to Armour's body of work: horses, landscapes/seascapes, boats, abstracts.
This is what the artist says about his process:
“In the end, what I find most spiritual about art is the time a person can spend looking at it, contemplating it. The divisions of space, the intelligence of color, the art of the line, the uniqueness of image, these captivate and move me whether I work in abstract, figurative, or landscape. In each I find the same challenges and beauty that come from the interplay of light and space and simplicity; there is little about the modern world that makes these considerations irrelevant.
“Art is mysterious to me. I am rarely able to remember the process of making it and I feel very little authorship of it. I can tell if I like it or do not, and can say why, but I cannot tell how it is mine, or of me.
“The pieces in this show are explorations. They are journeys down a river. The impulse to choose this tributary or that, to lag or rush, take the white water or move beneath trees, to stare beneath the surface or hold to the spell of its reflections - all art is to me a transcription of these impulses, these movements, these moments. What I care about most in my own work - and in all work I like - is how deeply felt or contemplated the pieces of this journey, and how honestly recorded.”
Armour’s preferred medium is oil; he also sketches prolifically - using charcoal, pencil, pastel, colored pencil, paint, ink, tape and collage. His style is contemporary, subjects ranging from the representational to the abstract. His works on paper show his process; some images are sequential and others are solitary thoughts. As a group they are a journal of an artist’s development.
Please join us for a reception for RIVER on Friday, February 9 from 5 - 8 pm at the Silo118 (118 Gray Avenue, Santa Barbara CA 93101).