Art

Item Description

Two paintings by San Francisco artist Christa Grenawalt. 

In addition to these two amazing pieces, winner is invited to come to the artist's gallery for a private experience, where Christa will explain her methodology and process.

A rare treat!

Item Special Note

My paintings explore the forces out of our control in the vast natural landscape and how they are tied to the air we breathe and the cells in our bodies. I paint outside on the ground overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Northern California and Kauai. My kinesthetic response to the confrontation between the cliffs and the crashing waves is a meditation on the relationship between land and sea.

I paint spontaneous cycles, both generative and destructive. I track details from a plastic bag howling in the wind by the ocean to a decomposing whale at Point Reyes. Beauty can be found in the toxicity of the environment. Elements of water, soil, and air enter bodies resulting in health or harm: ocean mist, water, particulate pollution, and microbes impact the shape and development of cells.

For the past decade, I’ve focused on acrylic paint—plastic on canvas—to share an emotional response to the natural environment. Being outside, allowing my body to move with the wind and water, I search to find something tangible in the chaos to recover the lost sense of meaning.

The land is painted with metallic copper pigments connecting the iron in the soil to the blood cells in the body. The iridescent pigments represent the spray of the sea against the shore connecting it to oxygenating breath in the lungs. Through texture, layering and movement of paint, the material in the environment is brought into the work itself. Ocean water, rain, sand, grass, and dirt pigment are included with the paint. I further explore layers, painting cellular forms in my studio. I use gold, charcoal, and plastics as representational of the beauty and trauma of our time.

The past few years have been framed by environmental disruption—from floods, fires and smoke to toxic air and virus—navigating a new way to move through the world. During shelter in place, I have printed reflections on the computer screen and windows, layering images to navigate the uncertainty of being separated from natural environments. The past and future virtual vision obscures a present need to connect.

Winning bidder will coordinate directly with the artist for a mutually agreeable date.