JOY TO THE WORLD

This years Christmas Card was inspired by two major events in my life this holiday season.  The first, my wife and I being pregnant during the holidays and due any day (the ultimate gift)!  The second, is the literary work of the great Charles Dickens. Mr. Dickens has always been a part of the Gallaher household at Christmas time and my wife and I continue to make our annual visit to San Francisco's own The Great Dickens Christmas Fair.  This unique one-of-kind live performance is held exclusively in San Francisco's own Cow Palace and hosted by Red Barn Productions (the same folks who bring us the Renaissance Fair in Novato, CA).  Filled with over 200 actors and stage hands, this talented group of actors, costume artists and set designers recreate the streets Charles Dickens's 18th century victorian England filled with a cast of roaming characters as portrayed in Dickens's novels from Oliver Twist to A Christmas Carol.  We love this event and after making two separate visits with family this year, I set to work on this drawing.

























The drawing was completed at 8.5x11 inches on toned paper using markers, ink and colored pencil.  My close family and friends may find one of these in their mailbox days before Christmas, but posted here this greeting goes out to you and yours... Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year! 


Artwork: ©Copyright Trey Gallaher

"Joy to the World"
8.5x11 inches
toned paper, markers, ink and colored pencil

The Great Dickens Christmas Fair  -> HERE

32 WEEKS

Video: ©Copyright Trey Gallaher

"32 Weeks"

graphite on paper

SUBLIMATION

I recently finished-up this new painting.  As part of the new series I am working on this piece titled "Sublimation" explores themes of empowerment, forgiveness and rebirth.  Painted in oil on canvas measuring 36 x 48 inches the imagery depicts symbols of purity and promise leaving behind ghosts of a former self.

Artwork: "Sublimation"
©Copyright Trey Gallaher
All Rights Reserved.

THE ULTIMATE ART PROJECT - P.1

I can't begin to describe the ecstatic feelings that came over us the day my wife and I found out we were pregnant.  Pure joy, exhilaration, surprise and a flood of emotions I have never quite felt before or since in my life.  If you are lucky enough in your life-time to be told those words... "Congratulations, you are pregnant" and you are ready to hear them, there is no greater feeling.   It's like winning the lottery! This welcomed news for us would begin a transformation in our lives forever changing what we were, thought we were, or were ever going to be.

Talk about the ultimate art project! Everything in our lives would begin to be taken over by this news no matter how small.  You begin to see life in a new way through a new set of eyes.  You can't slow it down or speed it up, you just have to hang on for dear life and watch as the woman's body begins to do what it is programmed to do.

The first weeks are slow, and you feel tired, tired, tired...  Your body starts to change in little ways, not significantly, just in little ways that you can't quite put your finger on.  Eventually the news begins to spread to your friends and family and now you are eating voraciously with cravings that would shock a caveman.

Watching my wife eagerly wanting and waiting for changes to happen, to show the life that was growing in her, would soon give way to feelings of anxiety that her body is taking over and not caring how she feels or that she has a meeting first thing in the morning at work.  Life can't just stop because you threw-up before your day even began, feel un-rested, can't eat and have an annoying allergy that seems to be getting worse than ever.  Welcome to pregnancy!

Her belly begins to grow at an alarming rate about twenty-four weeks and it's like an out-of control steam locomotive barreling down the tracks headed straight for you both... hold on!!!! And right about that time you suddenly think this can't get more shocking and amazing watching all this happen before your very eyes, suddenly you feel a little sharp jab, bump or a poke... "WHOA, did you just feel that? OMG!"

(... to be continued)


Artwork: © Copyright Trey Gallaher
 "24 Weeks"
graphite on paper
 "8 Weeks"
graphite on paper
 "16 Weeks"
graphite on paper

CONCEPT ART SUMMER 2013

I just wanted to give a BIG SHOUT OUT to my Concept Art class of the Summer of 2013!  I have always loved teaching this course and am so proud of the hard work my students give me.  This course develops visual ideas and artwork for animations, game art, comics and story-driven entertainment.  From initial sketches and scripts these students develop the look and feel for various commercially viable projects.  Students learn to sharpen their drawing and illustration skills and how to communicate and visually develop ideas. This summer over a speedy eleven weeks, this group gave it their very best and produced some amazing concepts and artwork!  I will miss our fun and power-packed Wednesday nights together watching you guys fill the walls with ideas and drawings.  Keep up the great work everyone, I believe in your talents!

ECHOES

"Echoes" ... is one of the newer paintings from the series I am currently working on in the studio.  Standing 24x30 inches and painted in oil on canvas it conveys spiritual connection and transcendence.  A sense of balance and harmony reverberates throughout the landscape.


Artwork: ©Copyright Trey Gallaher
"Echoes"
24x30 inches, oil on canvas

DRAWING ON FASHION: JAPANESE DESIGNERS OF THE 80's

Several years ago I had the fortunate and eye-opening pleasure to visit  a fantastic exhibition at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum of exemplary and influential Japanese fashion designers from the 80's.  Designers like Issey Myaki, Junya Watanabe, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto have become legends in the fashion industry and several of their most famous and inspirational pieces were on display.  Not being a fashion history buff but still a lover of great figurative art and the Asian Art Museum, I figured I would poke my head in and see what was on display.

To my surprise I immediately found myself right at home.  I took the afternoon to walk through the exhibit several times in absolute rapture and awe of what I saw.  What passed before my eyes resembled more of a science fiction movie than a fashion retrospective. Shape and form spiraled together to create an imaginitive and innovative running story in my mind that inspired me immediately bring together two art forms that in my mind couldn't have been farther apart. I never could have imagined that high-fashion and science-fiction could tolerate standing in the same room together let alone working together in such a natural and elegant way.

With my small bag of drawing supplies and sketchbook I began to draw immediately whatever I could capture, I had to.  Somehow I had to get down on paper what I was seeing.  Being more of a fantasy geek than and fashion diva I was unfamiliar with the work of these artists from the opposing side of the galaxy.  What I walked away with that afternoon was an idea that maybe as artists from differing worlds we might sometimes feel light years apart, but in our search for "The Edge" of creativity and imagination we might just be next door neighbors and maybe even friends.

If you would like to learn more about exhibit you can visit the SFGATE review on the exhibit -->  HERE

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco --> HERE

Drawings & Studies ©Copyright Trey Gallaher

plate 1:  dress design by  Yohji Yamamoto
Study (marker)

Plate 2:  dress design by Issey Myaki
Study (graphite)

Plate 3:  dress design by Junya Watanabe
Study (charcoal)

Plate 4:  dress design by Rei Kawakubo
Study (watercolor pencil)

Plate 5:  dress design by Junya Watanabe
Study#2 (marker, ink)

Plate 6:  dress design by Rei Kawakubo
Study#2 (marker)

SUMI DRAWINGS 2

Artwork: Copyright Trey Gallaher

image 1: "Deduced"
image 2: "Call of the Wild"
image 3: "Nocando"

FLOWERING SPADE

"Flowering Spade" is another work from my new series.  Painted in oil on wood panel it touches on several classic themes in art, reflection, desire and purification. Confinement in our lives is often self-imposed and can be outwardly defining in nature.  How do we begin to replace inherent preconception with truth and set ourselves free?

At the time I was painting this I was listening to the music of one of my favorite singer-songwriters Sean Hayes.  The title is also a 'nod' to his moving song by the same name.

Sean Hayes Music -->  seanhayesmusic.com

Artwork: ©Copyright Trey Gallaher
"Flowering Spade"
oil on wood panel
18x24 inches

JOURNAL 6: EMERSON, FRANK & GANDHI

Artwork: Copyright Trey Gallaher
From the Journal  Hummingbird.

Qoutes: (by their respective authors)
Mahatma Gandhi
Anne Frank
Ralph Waldo Emerson

OUTSIDE THE BOX

I finished this painting a while back and wanted to post this sooner rather than later.  Completed in oil paint on wood panel 18x24 inches I wanted this piece to encompass a glorious sense of light, luminosity and vibrancy while still allowing for interesting brushwork and paint application. Using a limited palette and a strong gestural pose, I strived to capture a sense of "strength" and "reconnecting" with something spiritual, primal and perhaps lost within ourselves. This is one of the earlier pieces in a series I have been working on for exhibition next year. I've included a detail shot here and you can click the images to see them larger. Enjoy!

"Outside the Box"
18x24 inches
oil on wood panel

Artwork:  Copyright Trey Gallaher. All Rights Reserved.