/John Garton
John Garton
Table for Two in Grey
Inspired by: Howard John Besnia, Persis Constance Bigelow, 1945 Debutante (Miss Meriwether Lewis Cowgill)
oil on canvas
12″ x 16″
2024
I liked the palette of Howard John Besnia’s Persis, but found myself thinking also about the loneliness I perceived in Constance Bigelow’s Debutante. The martini glasses and gray color convey a similar narrative openness/emptiness.
John Garton
Empty Pilsners
Inspired by: Henry George Todd, Study of Strawberries Adriaen van Otade, Company in a Tavern Matt Siber, McDonalds
oil on gesso panel
15″ x 20″
2024
In setting up and painting the still life Empty Pilsners, I drew inspiration from Henry George Todd’s Study of Strawberries and Adriaen van Ostade’s Company in a Tavern. Rather than ripe berries, I selected tumbling empty glasses, but set up and painted in a theme of vanitas painting. A cool emptiness prevails. The Dutch etching celebrates companions in a tavern, but my image captures the stillness of drinking glasses afterwards.