Fort Worth Star Telegram Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008
Creative Life: Artist Pat Gabriel’s landscapes with roiling cloudscapes
Artist, Pat Gabriel, 48, creative director and painter
Breakthrough moment: In March, Gabriel entered the Biennial show at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. It was the first time in 20 years he had offered up one of his paintings for public scrutiny. On the strength of that one piece, Palo Verde Shadows, a painting he made in 2006, the center’s exhibitions committee invited him for a best-of exhibit, "Advisory Panel Selects," in September. This time, three of his atmospheric landscapes were included.
Day job: For the past 18 years, Gabriel has worked in the commercial art sector as a creative director at GCG Advertising in Fort Worth. He used to paint but put down his brushes when his family began to grow. Four years ago, he visited the studio of Randy Bacon, who had toiled in advertising and gave it all up to be a full-time artist. It provided Gabriel with some needed inspiration. "I thought, 'Gosh, look at this,’ " he says. "I was really inspired to get serious about my own painting." He began devoting his weekends to painting.
Weekend work: He built up a small body of work, often painting low-horizon landmasses with roiling cloudscapes. The dramatic vistas stood out in the best-of-show exhibition. Even though they weren’t hung together, they dominated the walls and overshadowed the neighboring works. There is something about his clouds that demands the viewer’s attention. They pull you toward Gabriel’s canvases and don’t relinquish their hold easily. His clouds are compelling.
"I couldn’t stop observing the heavens if my life depended on it," he writes in his artist’s statement. "Often, I find myself on the side of the road staring out my car window and seeing it all in pure strokes of paint. When I am not at my easel, I’m still painting in my head. The duality and tension of places where the natural and the man-made collide is very interesting to me; I see it as a symbolic balance of dark and light. I see the light and happiness but cannot escape the dark, realizing how tightly they are woven; one cannot truly be experienced without the other."
Gaile Robinson
Star Telegram Art and Design Critic
From program for Advisory Panel Selects Show,
Fort Worth Community Arts Center
In both subject matter and artistic process, Patrick Gabriel’s work acknowledges the ever present but rarely articulated balance existing within the natural world. His work successfully navigates the space in between the austere and the sublime, between the rugged road and the satiated sky, and between manmade and heaven sent. In doing so, Gabriel’s work conflates the boundaries separating traditionally opposing forces.
In Gabriel’s painting, Roadside Storm, Mesocyclone, an overly animated sky is tempered by a stationary object that, itself, implies kinetic movement; a tranquil, arid landscape seemingly shudders in anticipation of an imminent deluge. In Two Travelers, a vivid sunset is offset by dark, silhouetted forms both natural and manmade, in the foreground. In both paintings, the intangible space in between extremes is filled as juxtaposed objects gravitate towards the other, reminding the viewer that opposites are not always too far apart.
Justin Holt
Advisory Panel Member, Fort Worth Community Arts Center
Several of my works featured at Artspace111
in American Landscape: Urban/Rural
DFW.com Wednesday, Mar. 25 2009
Artists bring different techniques to wide-open landscapes
Artists bring varied interpretations to vast space that lies west of Fort Worth
by Gaile Robinson
Feeling blue
As for the blue-infused landscapes, these are best handled by Eric Stevens and Pat Gabriel. Gabriel’s paintings are primarily cloudscapes with a low horizon line; these come close to relating to an African savanna and are immediate crowd-pleasers. He will often put a curtain of impediment between the viewer and the clouds — a tangle of scraggly bushes or dozens of electrical wires will stretch across the field of view.
“It’s the little bit of man-made meets wide-open space. What I am looking at is the sky, but I like the way it looks through trees. Lately I’ve been interested in light towers or electrical towers,” he said. “I like their relationship with the sky and clouds, what they do when you’re looking at the sky through them.”
Excerpt from
For the entire write-up, please visit the Fort Worth Star Telegram
Preservation is the Art of the City
September 5 – 26 2009
Fort Worth Community Arts Center
The opening night pre-sale reception had a fantastic turn out, thanks to Historic Fort Worth. I was awarded the Gail and Bill Landreth Award in memory of Gene Owens for the miniature driving paintings.
Click the image at right to see all the miniatures.
To read more click the link below:
The 2009 Texas Artists Coalition
Juried Membership Show
August 7 – 30 2009
Fort Worth Community Arts Center
Juror: Kevin Vogel, Director of Valley House Gallery in Dallas.
To read more about the show and Juror see the links below:
I am very happy to announce that I was one of seven artists awarded a prize at the TAC show. As I understand it, only thirty-one artists were selected to exhibit, from over one hundred and twenty members.
Cityscapes, Storms and Lines
a series of miniature paintings were recently shown at Artspace111’s
Paintings, Prints, and Presents
December 10 – January 14, 2009
current, recent and past:
Artspace111’s Paintings, Prints, and Presents reviewed in ARTnews
Excerpt from: In oil studies for larger, more complex endeavors, Pat Gabriel offered skies dissected by telephone poles and power lines. These often overlooked representatives of the grid became objectionable lead players, relegating the artist’s usually transfixing skyscapes to supporting roles as backgrounds of blue. – Gaile Robinson
for entire write up see ARTnews
February 2010, page 115
Lines 4
8.5” x 5.5” oil on paper 2009
Some of my latest work will be shown at Artspace111 during
Opening March 27, 2009
Spring Gallery Night 2 – 9 pm
The detail at right shows the scale and complexity of this new work. Click the picture to go to the full finished image.
Hunting Art Prize turns 30
I recently attended the Hunting Art Prize 30th anniversary Gala as one of 134 finalists, selected out of the 1,400 artists that submitted work. My painting wasn't chosen therefore I will be entering again next year.
The Hunting Art Prize, which is sponsored by the international oil services company Hunting PLC, is a prestigious annual competition open to Texas artists. Its $50,000 award is the most generous annual art prize in the U.S. and has helped to build the reputations and support the careers of distinguished artists for 30 years.
Painting workshop
Cloudscapes in Oil
Presented by Artspace111
I was pleased to conduct a painting workshop at Artspace111 on July 24, 2010. Thanks to those of you who attended! It was a challenging yet successful day. Above are a few of the fine paintings created.