Santa Ysabel Art Gallery’s first exhibit in over a year — “Through a Grain of Sand, Inventions from the Microscopic Landscape,” by painter Larry Groff — opens July 10.
The showing of Groff’s large and small contemporary oil paintings — with imagination-based imagery instead of his usual landscapes — opens with a reception for the artist from 4 to 7 p.m. The exhibit runs through Aug. 22.
Originally set to open at the gallery in April 2020, Groff’s exhibit was canceled because of the coronavirus, said Annie Rowley, gallerist at the art gallery.
“It’s great to finally get to see the light of day,” the San Diego artist said.
“Through a Grain of Sand” represents a change in style that evolved gradually, according to Groff.
“I’ve been painting from observation for 30 years,” said Groff, founder and editor of the website “Painting Perceptions.” “I wanted to create a situation where I was bringing my skill set of looking at reality and getting a sense of the light, form and solidity of the thing and have it more my imagination.”
An irer of the poet William Blake, he used the first stanza of Blake’s poem, “Auguries of Innocence,” to set the theme for the exhibit: “To See a World in a Grain of Sand/ And Heaven in a Wild Flower/ Hold Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand/ And Eternity in an Hour.”
“It’s such a visual poem,” Groff said. “Centering things around microscopic grains of sand that suggests not foretelling the future, in auguries, but one would imagine scenarios of people who sort of create their own meaning and narrative.”
Another inspiration for the show was Gary Greenberg’s book “A Grain of Sand,” which features photographs of highly magnified grains of sand in a range of translucent colors and shapes that have been been sculpted over eons, Rowley said.
When you see the grains close up, they look like jewels, Groff said.
“I love the transparency and the sense of an almost sculptured form,” he said. “Some are organically derived, broken pieces of shells or microorganisms that have calcified structures, tiny creatures. There are biomorphic forms and also crystalline forms. It’s really an excuse to play with color, light and shape.”
Groff, who holds an MFA in painting from Boston University and a BFA in painting from Massachusetts College of Art, ed his painting after graduate school working as a nurse. When he left nursing in 1999, he taught himself 3-D computer animation and worked as a medical animator.
For the exhibit, he digitally modeled and sculpted the sand in grain-like forms and arranged them as if he was setting up a still life. Then he relied on his imagination and memory for his paintings.
Groff said he is happy to finally meld his skills with computers and medical animation with his art.
“I brought them together and I’m really excited about it,” he said.
Santa Ysabel Art gallery is at 30352 Highway 78 at Highway 79. Gallery hours are Thursday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ission is free.
For more information, visit santaysabelartgallery.com
