"Downstream"
"Ripples"
"Windriver Pond"
Downstream...
...as in my current favorite bumper sticker, which reads:After looking at my current collection of work it dawned on me that saying applied to my work as well. My images are selected waterscapes of places downstream. I collect reference photos during my adventure trips to remember some of the most beautiful spots I experience. Sometimes I even get to paint on site.
When I make choices for a painting subject, I consider what I want to spend my most valuable time painting, pretty things, no, dark things, no. Communication of essential life is my goal. Painting an environment, developing it into a surrounding image, distorting, selecting parts to enhance, removing parts that won't fit, I compile what I see around me and create a vessel image to surround you, the viewer. I bring to your attention the essential life that I value.
My current work focuses on water, our most basic, essential life resource. I'm asking all who see my work, to refocus attention on how we treasure, use, recycle, clean and find beauty in water.
Marty Gabe
"Eel Grass Pond"
"Siletz Mud Flats"