george brinner Artisan
13207 PomegranateSun City West,Arizona85375
4805998425brinnerart@earthlink.nethome page:brinnerart.com
george brinner
About george brinner
My paintings are in private and public collections across the USA, Europe and Japan. Institutional collectors include the Houston Museum of Art, Tulane University, The Blaffer Foundation Collection, and the Hawaii State Foundation for Culture and the Arts. Selected for numerous juried shows including The Illinois Artist's Exhibition at the Chicago Art Institute, three Indiana Artist's Annual Exhibitions, and more than twenty pieces to the prestigious Annual Art Maui Exhibitions. I am one of only four painters selected for the first two editions of Hawaii's Schaefer Portrait Challenge and one of eleven artists whose work was chosen to be part of the singular 'Witness to Time' exhibition in conjunction with the art of Edward Bailey and the Bailey House Museum.
As an artist I consider myself a magical realist.
Among the earliest and most important influences on my art were Loren Dunlap and his innovative two dimensional design program at John Herron Art Institute. A scholarship at Tulane University's Newcomb College followed two years working with Dunlap and Bill Crutchfield, at Herron.
The abstract expressionists were all the rage in the 'art world' when I arrived at Tulane; DeKooning and that crowd. (The abstract expressionist, Helen Frankenthaler, was, although only briefly my instructor at Newcomb, a big influence on me. It was only natural my work became more painterly and abstract over the next few years at Tulane.
After Tulane I was selected to assist Loren Dunlap on the Owenite restoration Project in New Harmony, Indiana and was an adviser and instructor for the Blaffer Foundation Art Project that followed.
I came to the Hawaiian Island of Maui by chance in the summer of nineteen seventy eight. Among my earliest projects was a series of imaginary landscape paintings loosely based on island locations. The start of what would become a long affiliation with Lynn Shue and her Village Gallery was one of the things that convinced me my chances of survival as an artist were about as good on Maui as any other place, so why not wake to a pleasant day. Maui has remained home ever since. (Since the summer of 2014 I have also been living in Arizona.)
Until recently I owned a great little dive bar in Kihei on the southern coast of Maui where I could take refreshment with an assortment of bar flies or hobnob with the rich and famous like Jack Nicholson or my golf partner, Willie Nelson when they dropped by for the occasional cocktail. Sometimes I just sat and watched the whales play. Come to think of it, all of that still happens now and then.
For more than fifteen years, the subjects of my paintings were mostly an eclectic mix of imagined landscapes, still life, and figurative work. Recently, portraits and figure compositions have emerged as primary subjects. The addition has been natural and without conscious intent; an evolutionary process I guess. It's an exciting time.
Hill Country oi...
by george brinner
Jodi's Banana T...
East Maui Mount...
Two Figures in ...
Sedona Sunset
The Train Lady
Oriental Ladies...