Story by Mackenzie
When night descended on Greenfield, it was time for artist Frank Gregory to get to work.
Using a loaned key, he would enter the Arts Block building and climb the stairs to the fourth floor, a cavernous, dusty and dirty open space illuminated by just a couple of naked light bulbs.
There, situated high above the hustle and bustle on Main Street, the 49-year-old artist would set up his easel near the building’s windows, where he would sit for hours, enveloped in the spooky space, creating works of art inspired by the world below.
The only bright light came from over his shoulder, from a spotlight that shined on the piece he was working on.
He created some of his paintings and pastels onsite or “en plein air,” a French expression meaning in the open air. He also snapped hundreds of pictures and did smaller renditions, which he used to as inspiration to create more works at his studio in Greenfield.
The end result: a collection of paintings, photographs, pastels and monotypes that explore visual issues revealed in the dark, such as the color and definition of objects as they light up under car headlights.
Gregory’s work will be on display and for sale at the Stoneleigh-Burnham School, 574 Bernardston Road in Greenfield, in its Geissler Gallery. His show, titled "Greenfield @ Main & Federal,"will open on Friday, Jan. 14 and will run until Feb. 22.
There will be a gallery talk at 2:40 p.m. and the opening reception at 6 p.m. Fifty percent of the sales of works from this exhibit will go directly to the Greenfield Public Library. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment by calling (413) 774-2711 ext. 263.
Additionally, Gregory is donating one of his paintings to the library — a monochromatic streetscape made with oil paints, which the artist painted from a vantage point from one of the building’s northeast windows.
From that view, the building juts out into the road, over the sidewalk, which Gregory says gave him the feeling that he was flying over Main Street. “It is a really intriguing view … there are not many places that you can get that view.”
Gregory, “a big fan of the library,” decided to give the painting to the institution to display because of the challenges it has faced in these tough economic times. He raised his family about a block away from the library; it became a safe place they could allow their children to visit on their own.
The catalyst for this exhibit was a grant from the Greenfield Cultural Council, which is funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The local cultural council was looking for artists to create a piece of public art. Gregory had wanted to do a night painting of Greenfield for some time and was given the funding to create one painting, which ultimately became the work of art he is donating to the library.
By the time he had a painting to give the library, he had created a body of work, including his photographs, pastels and monotypes.
“Initially, this wasn’t a project per se, but a means to an end, creating the painting for the library. At some point along the way, I realized it was a fairly cohesive body of work and then saw it as a project.”
Shimmering details
Gregory’s Greenfield streetscapes are mostly deep hues of blues and purples with shimmering bright details, often from the passing cars and streetlights illuminating Main Street after the sun sets.
Gregory says the focus for these pieces was not detail, but color.
These are night scenes, yet he uses no black or white in the paintings, instead mixing other colors to create dark and light hues. You might not notice this until being told.
When looking at the paintings close up, one can see the texture of the paint — the globs of different colors. Once you step back from the painting, these meld into a cohesive and fluid view of the street below.
The blending of the different colors and the intentional placement of the different hues of paint and pastel, especially in the portrayal of the light glowing from the street lights and different buildings, make the paintings come to life.
The lighting that gives Gregory’s paintings such vitality was one of the biggest obstacles to creating them. When a car passes by, the light changes dramatically, but just for a split second.
“Most of my landscapes are done from ground level, although I hike a lot and paint from mountain tops, too,” he said. “There’s something about getting that kind of distance, and the way the surfaces of the ground becomes like a tabletop full of objects.”
Gregory has created several other night series, including works featuring scenes from the Franklin County Fair and the city of Northampton.
Often, Gregory will first do a light sketch on the canvas, before he starts to paint or use another mediums, like pastels. His favorite tool to do this — a fishing pole with a piece of charcoal fastened to the end.
This allows him to see the whole canvas while he sketches, which is especially handy when he does large murals.
Working big
Gregory has been selected to create large pieces of public art for the Florida Department of Health, the New Hampshire Youth Development Center and the Roaring Brook Nature Center in Canton, Conn. He has an upcoming project with the New Hampshire Technical Community College in Concord.
“I love working very big,” he said.
Some of his works have been 8 feet by 15 feet and 10 feet by 23 feet. The biggest painting in his Greenfield exhibit is about 25 inches by 25 inches, while the smallest monotypes are roughly 12 inches by 12 inches.
At the Arts Block building, he had several setups that included three different easels and a few paint brushes. He tried to limit what he brought.
In his studio on Meade Street, it’s a different matter. There, he can get messy and do whatever needs to be done to create his artwork, like splashing and spilling paints to get the desired effect. Almost every piece of clothing he owns has paint on it somewhere.
“I try, but before long it’ll happen to everything. I do wear an apron now, so that helps.”
While working, sometimes he blasts the music or listens to book recordings. Other times, he likes to work in complete silence, sometimes wearing ear protectors to block out all sound.
Getting started on a project can be torture for Gregory. “But, I’ve found it’s best to just jump in like swimming in the ocean ... before too long, if things start to gel, I can work for hours and, when its done, it’ll feel like it was minutes.”
“If things are not going well, every little scrape of the brush is irritating and I’ll have to do something else ... go for a walk, play my guitar, whatever.” “This is another reason why I like working on the huge mural work, if things are not going well in one place, there’s always somewhere else to work.”
‘Total art geek’
In high school, the art room was where you’d find Gregory, who described himself as a “total art geek.”
“My father was the chemistry teacher and head of the science department in my high school,” he said. “He didn’t take it well when I dropped out of physics to take another art class … he’s on board with it now, though.”
Gregory graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1985 with a bachelor of fine arts in painting. Since then, he has worked on many different projects, including painting murals at the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls.
Gregory also runs a frame shop, Green River Frameworks, and has an exhibit design, installation and fabrication studio, Frank Gregory Studios, in Greenfield that services art and natural history museums.
He has worked with an array of museums and colleges, including the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
He has also designed logos for several local businesses, including The People’s Pint in Greenfield and the Deja Brew in Wendell.
He moved to Greenfield in 1988 and lives there with his wife, Terry, and their two daughters, 15-year-old Emilia and 17-year-old Grace, who is now applying to art schools.
Throughout college and his career in art, he has had many inspirations and influences. This includes contemporary artists Neil Welliver, Gerhard Richter, Antonio Lopez Garcia and Lucian Freud.
Other influences are Edward Hopper and the “classic plein air painters,” John Constable, Joseph William Turner, John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer.
He is also inspired by filmmakers and movie stills. “These are all about composition and the passage of time.”
Gregory says he paints for himself.
“That said, I have a family, house, mortgage, expenses, etc.,” he said. “It’s important that it generate an income, too. It is a balancing act.”
“The large projects are great because they generally have budgets that allow me to make a decent income. The natural history work can be like huge illustration jobs in that I have a client that has needs.
The large scale public art is the best of both worlds, good budget and it’s all my vision.”
But, before he got started on another big public art project, he had some time on his hands and the opportunity for the Greenfield project arose. He couldn’t turn it down.
“I have always been intrigued by downtown Greenfield at night and painting from the windows of the Arts Block provided exceptional views, relative comfort and was a real joy.”
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