NEW ORLEANS (press release) – Cole Pratt Gallery announced the opening of a new exhibition by Stephen Strickland, an award-winning Mississippi-born artist. ”Color and Gesture” showcases paintings exploring gestural figures within landscapes reminiscent of places along the Gulf Coast. Strickland, an art instructor at Coastal Alabama Community College, begins each painting in abstraction, guided only by color and texture, until imagined figures gradually emerge and take form. Strickland builds the surface with a palette knife and brush, allowing the paint to dry before scraping it back to reveal small treasures of color hidden beneath.
“I want my paintings to feel as though they grew out of the earth—naturally formed, with only a subtle human touch,” Strickland said. “I imagine them shaped both by the artist and by the passage of time, layered like sediments and textured with pigments.”
