Gregg Renfrow “Closer to the Water”

Gregg Renfrow, (left to right) The Sky’s a Mirror,  He Found His Mother and Father There, We Will Have Been as Dreamers, 2019, Polymer, Pigment on Cast Acrylic, 60 x 48 Inches

Since 1982, Gregg Renfrow has been working on acrylic panels that allow light to filter through the pigment. The result is an illumination of color and form subtly projected from the surface of the work. While looking at the paintings, the bands of color may appear suspended in real time and space. He achieves this discoloration, or dematerialization of the painted image, by pouring polymer over acrylic panels.  He is very careful not to interrupt the runs of paint with the unpredictable effects of the human hand. The impression from the contact of carefully applied pigment and transparent support is that the process has occurred by itself through some unknown power or force.

Gregg Renfrow, Studio 18, 2004-2019, Polymer, Pigment on Cast Acrylic, 16 x 18 Inches

Through this process of pouring, Renfrow creates organic layers of overlapping colors that at times undulate, or create straighter areas of striated color fields. Set off the wall by several inches, they create the luminous effect of light coming from behind them, or passing through them in a mysterious way. This abstract state of no depiction provides a graceful and calm atmosphere that encourages contemplation and the experience of pure seeing. The essence of being suggested by the pictorial space of these works dissolves the boundaries of color and form, light and spirit. As art critic Kenneth Baker commented, “Renfrow strikes a fine balance between describing and summoning light in paintings made of pigment-bathed, cast acrylic… these works find a resolution he has sought for years.”

Gregg Renfrow, Gonzalo’s Scarlet, 2008, Polymer, Pigment on Cast Acrylic, 56 x 51 Inches

Gregg Renfrow writes:

I draw the same thing every day while I sit on a bench on the shore of the Carquinez Strait:

– The light

– The sky

– The hills of the Contra Costa Open Space

– The water(s) of the Strait — a confluence of the Sacramento River and the San Pablo/San Francisco Bay.

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A kaleidoscope, comprised of the same exact pieces, forming sensory images that change from one second to the next.

Drawing, in order to establish empathy. Drawing, in order to become closer.

With this exercise, I am inspired and enabled to paint fields of color, quickened by actual and depicted light.